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THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  MUSEUM  OF  ART 

BULLETIN 


Volume  I 


Spring  1957 


Number  1 


FOREWORD 


After  the  great  effort  made  by  the  State 
of  North  Carolina  in  building  up  a  col- 
lection of  old  masters  worthy  of  the  State 
and  attractive  to  visitors  from  the  United 
States  and  other  parts  of  the  world,  it  was 
rightly  assumed  by  state  officials  that  in 
the  near  future  new  additions  should  be 
made  through  private  donations.  If  we 
were  successful  in  our  attempt  to  extend 
the  collection  in  this  manner,  it  would 
prove  that  the  interest  in  the  museum  was 
widespread  and  that  it  was  serving  its 
function  in  relation  to  the  public.  The 
action  of  the  Legislature — unique  in  the 
history  of  museums  in  the  United  States — 
to  spend  one  million  dollars  toward  the 
foundation  of  a  collection  would  thus  be 
justified. 

Fortunately,  such  donors — foundations  as 
well  as  private  citizens — came  to  the  fore 
to  help  us  with  important  gifts,  amounting 
within  a  year  to  about  one-third  of  the 
capital  invested  by  the  state,  which,  if 
added  to  the  donations  received  before  the 
opening  of  the  museum,  would  total  about 


forty  per  cent  more  than  the  original 
legislative  appropriation.  Thanks  to  the 
inexhaustible  efforts  of  the  president  of  the 
Art  Society,  Mr.  Robert  Lee  Humber, 
seconded  by  members  of  the  board,  and 
the  staff,  these  gifts  were  such  as  to  be 
able  to  fill  certain  gaps  in  the  collection, 
and  at  the  same  time  to  add  a  few  master- 
pieces by  artists  not  represented  in  the 
museum.  The  collaboration  between  the 
donors  and  the  staff,  which  is  necessary  if 
the  museum  is  to  develop  in  the  right 
direction,  has  proved  to  be  well  knit.  The 
donors  understood  that  the  professional 
staff  of  the  museum  would  have  an  overall 
plan  and  would  know  in  which  fields  the 
collections  need  to  be  strengthened,  while 
the  museum's  officials  could  learn  from  the 
donors  in  which  directions  lay  the  interests 
of  North  Carolina's  art  friends. 

This  first  number  of  our  bulletin  is 
dedicated  to  the  acquisitions  which  have 
come  as  gifts  and  extended  loans  during 
the  first  year  of  the  existence  of  the  North 
Carolina  Museum  of  Art. 

W.  R.  V. 


Cover:  Francisco  Jose  de  Goya  y  Lucientes  (Spanish,  1746-1828),  The  Topers,  painted  in  1819.  Canvas, 
39j^  x  31  J/2  inches.  Gift  of  the  Mary  Reynolds  Babcock  Foundation,  Reynolda,  North  Carolina. 

The  North  Carolina  Museum  of  Art  Bulletin  is  published  quarterly.  Copyright,  1957,  by  the  North  Carolina  Mu- 
seum of  Art,  107  East  Morgan  Street,  Raleigh,  North  Carolina.  Subscriptions  SI. 00  a  year.  Single  copies  $.25. 
Sent  free  to  North  Carolina  State  Art  Society  members.  Four  weeks'  notice  required  for  change  of  address. 


CONTENTS 


Foreword   ii 

Tintoretto's  "Forge  of  Vulcan"   3 

By  Clemens  Sommer 

In  the  Sphere  of  Rubens   6 

I.  Van  Dyck,  "Madonna  and  Child  With  Five  Saints"   6 

II.  Theodor  Rombouts,  "The  Backgammon  Players"   8 

III.  Sculptures  by  Francois  Duquesnoy   9 

Tiepolo,  "The  Banquet  of  Cleopatra"   11 

Goya,  "The  Topers"   12 

By  W.  R.  Valentiner 

Henry  Fuseli,  "The  Three  Weird  Sisters"    14 

By  May  Davis  Hill 

Thomas  Sully   17 

By  James  B.  Byrnes 

Acquisitions  of  Twentieth  Century  Paintings   22 

By  Ben  F.  Williams 

Registrar's  Report  of  New  Acquisitions,  April  6,  1956,  to  February  6,  1957   24 


i 

] 
I 


i 
i 
( 

[ 
! 
] 

I 

( 

1 
( 

I 


TINTORETTO'S  "FORGE  OF  VULCAN" 


by  Clemens  Sommer 


Tintoretto's  "Forge  of  Vulcan"  (Fig.  2), 
on  loan  from  Mr.  and  Mrs.  W.  Lunsford 
Long,  is  not  a  newcomer  in  art  history: 
As  early  as  1925  the  painting  was  in  a 
loan  exhibition  of  the  Kaiser-Friedrich- 
Museums-Verein  in  the  Akademie  der 
Kiinste  in  Berlin  (No.  397).  Strangely 
enough,  it  has  not  found  any  consideration 
in  the  Tintoretto  literature  of  the  past 
thirty  years.  The  reason  might  be  that  the 
painting  was  more  or  less  hidden  until  it 
turned  up  in  this  country  very  recently. 
About  the  genuineness  and  the  attribution 
there  can  hardly  be  any  doubt.  It  bears 
too  obviously  the  characteristics  of  Tin- 
toretto's hand. 

The  size  (height  30  L2  inches,  width  52^9 
inches)  of  the  painting  is  rather  unusual, 
most  of  Tintoretto's  paintings  being  on  a 
more  monumental  scale.  The  reason  for 
this  might  be — as  Wilhelm  Bode  suggested 
— that  the  painting  was  a  sopraporte  or 
another  part  of  a  room  decoration.  The 
fact  that  the  figures  in  the  painting  fall 
into  an  integrated  pattern  only  if  the  paint- 
ing is  seen  from  below  points  in  the  same 
direction,  and  so  does  the  subdued  and 
generalized  tonality  of  the  color.  The 
stretcher  is  certainly  a  19th  century  replace- 
ment, since  only  the  left  edge  of  the  canvas 
seems  to  be  intact,  and  it  is  likely  that  on 
top  and  bottom,  as  well  as  on  the  right 
side,  some  small  areas  may  be  missing. 

The  subject  matter  of  the  painting  is 
clear.  It  is  taken  from  the  eighth  book  of 
Virgil's  Aeneid.  Aeneas  has  landed  in 
Italy  during  the  war  with  Turnus.  His 
divine  mother,  Venus,  fearing  for  her 
son's  safety,  asks  her  husband,  Vulcan,  to 
make  him  armor  and  so  persuades  him 


through  feminine  wiles  and  love-making. 
The  scene  Tintoretto  painted  is  the  sequel 
to  this.  Vulcan  hurries  to  the  cave  under 
Mount  Aetna  in  Sicily  where  the  Cyclopes 
work.  He  tells  them  that  they  must  lay 
down  the  work  they  are  doing  and  immedi- 
ately start  to  forge  the  armor  for  Aeneas. 
The  story  tells  that  when  Vulcan  entered 
the  Cyclopes'  cave,  there  were  three  of 
them,  Brontes,  Steropes  and  Pyracmon,  in 
the  process  of  making  armor  for  Athene. 
This  is  the  moment  Tintoretto  has  chosen. 
Billowing  clouds  drift  in  from  the  right 
edge  of  the  painting,  carrying  the  lithe  figure 
of  the  god,  who  bends  forward  pointing  with 
unmistakable  gesture.  The  white  color  of 
the  skin,  the  weightlessness  of  his  slender 
limbs,  the  silken  white  hair,  characterize 
him  as  a  god  nourished  by  ambrosia,  in 
strong  contrast  to  the  ruddy  complexions 
and  powerful  build  of  the  working  com- 
panions. They  stand  around  the  anvil,  on 
which  one  is  holding  a  shield  with  pincers 
in  his  left  hand  while  pointing  out  the 
place  to  be  hit  with  a  light  hammer  in  his 
right.  The  other  two  swing  their  heavy 
hammers  to  follow  the  lead.  While  the  one 
in  the  center  is  rather  well-clad,  the  one 
to  the  left  wears  only  a  working  shirt  and 
the  one  to  the  right,  seen  from  the  back,  is 
entirely  nude.  In  front  of  the  anvil,  on  the 
ground,  is  seen  Athene's  aegis  with  the 
Gorgon's  head,  which  is  here  shaped  like 
a  harness.  To  the  right  of  the  group  is  a 
chariot,  only  partly  assembled.  The  two 
Cyclopes  seen  from  the  front  show  their 
characteristic,  the  one  eye  on  the  forehead. 
Back  of  this  group  of  the  main  actors, 
giving   stability    to    the    rapidly  moving 


3 


figures,  are  pillar-like  supports,  which  look 
like  natural  formations  on  the  right,  turn- 
ing into  man-made  structures  to  the  left. 
On  the  left  there  are  openings  into  a  hall 
which  seems  to  be  filled  with  a  luminous 
atmosphere.  We  can  dimly  see  large  vaults 
resting  on  pillars  with  capitals.  In  this 
hall,  on  the  left  edge  of  the  painting,  a 
nude  Cyclops  is  working  on  some  indefinite 
chore.  There  must  have  been  a  view 
through  the  arches  in  the  distance,  but  the 
state  of  preservation  makes  it  impossible 
to  give  an  interpretation  to  the  vague 
forms  visible  there.  On  the  right  side  we 
see  through  the  openings  into  what  once 
was  a  vast  landscape.  A  clouded  sky 
stretches  over  a  wide  body  of  water,  which 
is  bordered  by  hills  and  mountains.  On 
the  right  edge,  shadowy  forms  seem  to 
indicate  that  there  was  a  bridge.  Seen 
through  the  opening  under  Vulcan's  arm 
a  clothed  figure  (outside  the  cave)  bends 
forward  holding  large  pincers  with  which 
he  dips  a  piece  of  steel  into  the  water. 

The  fluent  way  in  which  the  story  is 
told,  the  manner  in  which  its  important 
elements  are  distributed  so  as  to  give  a 
clear  understanding  of  the  events,  the 
characterization  of  the  actors  and  their 
activities,  this  alone  should  erase  any 
doubt  that  the  painting  is  from  the  master's 
hand.  So  also  does  the  well-balanced 
composition,  which  leads  the  eye  without 
haste  from  form  to  form,  giving  time  to 
observe  the  single  parts  without  breaking 
the  continuity  of  the  whole.  From  the 
tense,  compressed  force  in  the  figure  of 
the  Cyclops  to  the  left,  through  the  calmer 
but  no  less  dynamic  movement  of  the  two 
center  figures,  we  are  led  to  the  sweeping 
but  graceful  lines  of  the  figure  of  Vulcan, 
whose  gesture  brings  us  immediately  back 
to  the  center  of  the  form  as  well  as  the 


story.   Without  distracting  our  eye,  the 
background    with    its    rhythmical  alter- 
nation between  light  and  dark,  between 
far  and  near,  accentuates  and  accompanies 
the  dynamic  interrelation  of  the  move- 
ments.   The   coloristic    effect   strives  for 
totality  based  on  a  luminous  yellowish- 
brown,    strongest    in    the    figure    of  the 
Cyclops  to  the  left.  The  cool  bluish-green 
of  the  center  figure  contrasts  with  the 
warm  light  on  the  body  of  his  naked  com- 
panion and  accentuates  the  white  of  Vul- 
can's body,  framed  by  his  coat  of  wine-red, 
a  color  so  typical  of  Tintoretto's  palette. 
The  luminous  gold  haze  of  the  background  i 
to  the  left  and  the  dark  browns  of  the 
bulky  forms  in  the  center  and  to  the  right  ( 
are  again  a  perfect  accompaniment  for  the  j 
delicate  color  scheme  of  the  main  group.  ] 
The  lost  landscape  of  the  background  at  | 
the  right  must  certainly  have  contributed  ] 
much  to  the  complex  totality  of  the  color.  ( 
All  these  criteria  seem  to  indicate  a  work  , 
of  maturity  and  might  lead  to  the  con-  [ 
elusion  that  the  "Forge  of  Vulcan"  would  c 
be  a  late  work  of  Tintoretto's  hand,  but 
closer    analysis    points    in    the    opposite  f 
direction.  The  planar  arrangement  of  the  c 
main  group,  the  lack  of  recessional  devices,  t 
sets  it  off  from  all  the  works  of  Tintoretto's 
late  period.  The  careful  arrangement  of  |, 
all  the  figures,  so  that  they  can  be  seen  as  ] 
independent  forms,  and  the  clarity  of  the  S( 
outline  are  far  from  the  dynamic  inte-  j 
gration  of  the  late  works.  The  use  of  light,  [( 
dramatic  as  it  is,  has  still  as  its  main  purpose  „ 
the  clarification  and  not  the  integration  of  0 
the  form.  Comparison  with  any  of  Tin-  j 
toretto's  paintings  of  the  time  after  1560 
will  show  this.  But,  besides  these  general 
characteristics,  there  are  certain  definite  1! 
clues  which  enable  us  to  place  the  "Forge  j, 
of  Vulcan"  at  a  very  definite  point  in  the  !j 


4 


development  of  the  master  (ca.  1545-48). 
The  figure  of  the  nude  man  seen  from  the 
back  is  certainly  an  outstanding  motive. 
Its  companion  can  be  found  in  quite  a 
number  of  Tintoretto's  paintings,  although 
always  clothed.  We  find  him  in  the 
"Adulteress"  in  Dresden  and  in  the  version 
of  the  same  theme  in  the  Rath  Collection 
in  Amsterdam,  but  above  all  in  the  central 
figure  of  the  executioner  in  the  "St.  Mark 
Rescuing  the  Slave"  in  the  Academy,  to 
appear  for  the  last  time  in  the  woman  with 
a  child  in  the  foreground  of  the  "Presen- 
tation of  the  Virgin"  in  the  Madonna  dell' 
Orto.  After  that  it  disappears  entirely  from 
Tintoretto's  form  language.  In  the  "Forge 
of  Vulcan"  this  motive  has  all  the  freshness 
and  absorbing  interest  of  a  new  invention. 
But  the  closest  version  to  it  appears  in  a 
little-known  painting  of  the  "Wise  and 
Foolish  Virgins"  in  the  Van  Beuningen 
Collection,  which  I  know  only  from  a 
rather  poor  illustration  in  Pallucchini's 
book.1  In  this  same  painting,  there  appears 
on  the  left  edge  a  little  group  of  two  people 
seated  in  front  of  a  fire  in  a  back  room 
filled  with  a  luminous  atmosphere  like  the 
dimly  lighted  hall  behind  the  forge  and 
the  figures  of  the  Cyclopes. 

Thus,  it  seems  to  me  that  the  time  not 
'  long  before  the  great  turning  point  in 
1  Tintoretto's  artistic  development,  which  is 
'  so   beautifully  manifested   in   "St.  Mark 

■  Rescuing  a  Slave,"  should  give  the  date 

■  for  our  painting.  The  interest  in  clear 
'  narration,  the  still  slightly  manneristic  use 
I  of  established  formulae — as  seen  also  in  the 
•  little  arabesque-like  plants,  the  decorative 
J  tendency  in  the  arrangement  of  the  acces- 

'1  1  R.  Pallucchini,  La  Giovanezza  del  Tintoretto,  Milan, 
f    1950,  figure  173.  Further  information  about  the  artist 

may  be  found  in  Pallucchini  and  in  the  works  of  E.  von 
t   der  Bercken  (Die  Gemalde  des  Jacopo  Tintoretto,  Munich, 

1942)    and   H.    Tietze    (Tintoretto,    The   Paintings  and 

Drawings,  London,  1948). 


sories — all  this  accounts  for  the  first  im- 
pression of  maturity,  a  maturity  which 
Tintoretto  had  achieved  in  this  fateful 
moment,  a  finality  which  seems  to  char- 
acterize such  works  as  the  "Last  Supper" 
in  San  Marcuola,  the  "Washing  of  the 
Feet"  in  the  Escorial,  and  above  all,  the 
superbly  decorative  panels  with  Biblical 
stories  in  the  Prado  at  Madrid. 

But  there  is  one  more  proof  for  this 
dating  of  our  painting.  Three  times  has 
Tintoretto  made  use  of  the  forge  motive. 
One  of  the  four  paintings  which  he  executed 
for  the  Salotto  Dorato  of  the  Ducal  Palace, 
in  1578,  shows  the  Forge  of  Vulcan  again. 
As  in  our  painting,  four  figures  surround 
the  anvil,  but  no  story  is  told.  All  emphasis 
is  on  the  melodious  rhythm  of  the  action  of 
forging.  There  is  no  interest  in  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  Cyclopes,  who  appear  here  as 
normal  human  beings.  Placed  in  an  even 
distribution  around  the  anvil,  the  rise 
and  fall  of  their  hammers  conveys  the 
feeling  of  an  incessant  circulating  motion, 
a  dynamic  manifestation  of  movement  in 
space  and  time.  This  version  of  the  motive 
is  certainly  a  long  way  from  the  graceful, 
decorative  arrangement  of  our  painting. 
The  motive  appears  for  the  third  time  in 
one  of  Tintoretto's  most  mature  paintings, 
the  "Gathering  of  the  Manna"  in  San 
Giorgio  Maggiore,  from  about  1594.  In 
the  upper  left  corner  of  this  wonderfully 
exuberant  symphony  to  the  praise  of  this 
life  on  earth  are  three  men  gathered  around 
an  anvil.  The  almost  jubilant  intensity  of 
their  movements  seems  to  rotate  around 
the  anvil  in  a  frenzy  of  action.  Thus,  the 
three  versions  of  our  motive  really  sum  up 
the  whole  course  of  Tintoretto's  transfor- 
mation from  a  graceful  representative  of 
the  dying  High  Renaissance  to  the  forceful 
innovator  of  the  baroque. 


5 


IN  THE  SPHERE  OF  RUBENS 
by  W.  R.  Valentiner 


As  the  purpose  of  a  museum  is  not  only 
to  give  the  greatest  esthetic  pleasure  to 
the  cultured  mind,  but  also  to  educate  its 
visitors  in  the  history  of  art  and  culture, 
one  of  its  tasks  is  to  show  the  masters 
represented  within  the  atmosphere  in  which 
they  lived  and  to  explain  the  tradition  out 
of  which  they  grew,  as  well  as  the  extension 
of  their  influence. 

Rubens  is  the  best  represented  among 
the  old  masters  in  our  collection.  We  are 
now  trying  to  give  an  idea  of  his  surround- 
ings, the  "ambiente,"  as  it  is  called  in 
Italian — a  word  difficult  to  translate.  We 
observe  that  what  has  hardly  ever  happened 
elsewhere  in  the  art  history  of  a  country  oc- 
curred in  the  case  of  Rubens:  one  person- 
ality not  only  towered  above  all  other 
artists  of  his  country,  but  even  made  them 
subservient  to  his  ideas  to  such  an  extent 
that  they  formed  a  part  of  his  individuality. 

With  this  we  do  not  mean  to  say  that 
no  other  artist  personalities  could  exist 
alongside  him — there  were  a  sufficient  num- 
ber in  Flanders,  like  Van  Dyck,  Jordaens, 
Sustermans,  Cornelis  de  Vos,  and  the  still- 
life  and  landscape  painters — but  the  fact 
remains  that  we  could  not  imagine  the 
development  of  any  of  these  painters  with- 
out their  being  strongly  influenced  by 
Rubens,  an  influence  which  was  often  due 
to  a  collaboration  with  him.  And  this 
refers  not  only  to  painters,  but  also  to  the 
masters  of  sculpture  and  the  decorative 
arts,  among  them  the  tapestry  weavers 
who  are  represented  in  our  museum  by 


the  series  with  scenes  from  the  Trojan 
War  designed  by  a  follower  of  Rubens. 

I 

Van  Dyck 

"Madonna  and  Child  With  Five  Saints"  i 

The  greatest  personality  in  seventeenth 
century  Flanders  next  to  Rubens  was  Van  a 
Dyck.  His  production  in  a  short  life  is  | 
phenomenal.  In  portrait  painting — his  main  I 
subject — he  is  most  original,  for  two  cen-  !  t 
turies  influencing  the  future  masters  in  this  I 
field  perhaps  even  more  than  Rubens.  In  ot 
his  religious  paintings  he  reveals  a  passion 
equal  to  his  master,  but  in  these  themes  to 
as  in  other  storied  representations  his  sub-  li 
jectivity  narrowed  his  vision  and  denied  Is 
him  that  outlook  upon  the  vastness  of  the  an 
world's  creation  which  makes  Rubens  so  I 
great  and,  as  Jacob  Burckhardt  aptly  I 
remarked,  comparable  to  Homer. 

We  could  not  imagine  Van  Dyck  without !  ¥ 
the  inspiration  he  received  from  Rubens.  |  »> 
It  is  characteristic  that  his  greatest  epoch  ^ 
is  the  early  Antwerp  period  when  he  was  SU( 
nearest  to  his  master.  When  he  departed 
for  Italy  with  the  intention  of  freeing  him-  ^ 
self  from  Rubens's  tutorage  he  found  on  I 
his  first  stop  in  Genoa,  where  there  was 
great  demand  for  his  portraits,  that  Rubens  ffi 
had  already  created  there,  twenty  years  m 
earlier,  the  monumental  aristocratic  por-  ' 
trait  style  for  which  Van  Dyck  was  striving.  11 ' 

"The  Madonna  and  Child  with  Five»Plfl 
Saints"  (Fig.  3),  now  on  exhibition  in  the  r 
museum,  as  a  loan  from  J.  B.  Ivey  and  ^ 


6 


Company  of  Charlotte,  North  Carolina, 
which  acquired  it,  is  undoubtedly  one  of 
Van  Dyck's  masterpieces  executed  just  be- 
fore he  left  for  Italy,  in  the  years  1618-21, 
when  he  painted  such  famous  masterpieces 
of  portraiture  as  the  portraits  of  Snyders  and 
his  wife  in  the  Frick  Collection,  the  portrait 
of  Rubcns's  wife  "Isabella  Brant"  in  the 
National  Gallery  in  Washington,  and  the 
"Portrait  of  a  Gentleman"  in  the  Gul- 
benkian  Collection.  The  "Madonna  and 
Child  with  Five  Saints"  is  built  up  in  a  tri- 
angular composition  in  the  Italian  manner 
with  the  figures  in  strong  counter-move- 
ment, so  that  a  continuous  rhythm  moves 
through  the  entire  painting,  in  which  the 
Madonna  and  the  beautiful  Christ  Child 
occupy  the  central  places. 

Van  Dyck,  trying  in  vain  to  attain  the 
robust  vitality  of  his  master,  differs  from 
•  him  in  his  more  nervous  sensibility.  His 
figures  are  filled  with  an  emotional  quality 
:  and  fervent  expression  which  speak  for  the 
i  religious  ecstasy  of  the  young  artist.  The 
youthful  female  types  in  our  painting,  some 
:>f  great  beauty  like  the  auburn-haired  Vir- 
t  ^in  and  the  elegantly  dressed  Saint  Barbara, 
have  a  more  ethereal  character  than  those 
,  :>f  Rubens  and  have  lost  the  joyous  sen- 
j  iuousness  of  their  prototypes.  Saint  Magda- 
]  ene   and    Saint   Theresa,    to   the  right, 
.  ilmost  faint  with  pious  desires  and  are 
]  :onsumed  with  a  fanatical  frenzy  typical 
s  }f  the  religious  art  of  the  Counter  Refor- 
s  nation,  of  which  Van  Dyck  was  a  repre- 
s  ;entative. 

If  we  remember  that  Van  Dyck  painted 
r  it  that  period  such  famous  religious  master- 
nieces  as  "The  Betrayal  of  Christ"  and 
e  'The  Brazen   Serpent"   in   Madrid,  the 
,  'Saint  Jerome"  in  Dresden  and  Stockholm, 


the  "Saint  Sebastian"  in  Munich,  and  the 
two  Saint  Johns  in  Berlin,  and  notice 
the  close  connection  in  type  and  execution 
with  the  newly  acquired  painting,  we 
become  aware  that  this  painting  was 
created  in  the  midst  of  a  stormy  period  in 
which  the  artist  was  bursting  with  new 
ideas  and  an  enthusiasm  for  passionate 
creations  which  hardly  could  be  surpassed 
in  later  life,  a  life  which  ebbed  soon  after 
it  had  reached  its  maturity. 

The  restless  movements  of  these  figures, 
their  trembling  hands,  the  flaming  curves  of 
their  draperies,  and  the  nervous,  pasty  tech- 
nique combined  with  the  brilliancy  of  the 
rich  color,  especially  cinnabar  and  azure 
blue,  reminds  us  that  we  are  here  still  close 
to  the  great  mannerists  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, and  to  the  most  modern  of  all,  the 
Spaniard  El  Greco.  In  no  other  period 
was  Van  Dyck  so  near  to  our  modern 
expressionism,  and  for  this  reason  the  inter- 
est in  his  early  works,  which  were  neglected 
for  many  years,  has  grown  so  much  in 
recent  times  that  these  paintings  belong- 
now  among  the  most  valuable  of  the  artist's 
products. 

Thus  far,  we  have  had  Van  Dyck  repre- 
sented in  the  Museum  through  five 
examples  from  the  epochs  following  his 
first  Antwerp  period  (1613-1621).  That  is, 
the  Italian  period,  from  1622-1627,  repre- 
sented by  the  painting,  "The  Triumph  of 
the  Infant  Bacchus";  the  second  Antwerp 
period  1627-1632,  represented  by  the  por- 
trait of  the  artist's  friend,  Erycius  Puteanus; 
the  third,  the  English  period,  from  1632- 
1641,  represented  by  three  paintings,  the 
most  outstanding  one  being  "Mary, 
Duchess  of  Lennox."  The  "Madonna  and 
Child  with  Five  Saints"   is  the  earliest 


7 


composition  of  this  subject  which  Van  Dyck 
executed,  having  been  painted  when  he 
was  about  twenty  years  of  age.1 

II 

Theodor  Rombouts 
"The  Backgammon  Players" 

Different  as  they  otherwise  were  in  their 
conceptions,  Rubens  and  Rembrandt  were 
alike  in  their  lack  of  interest  in  genre 
painting,  that  is,  in  paintings  representing 
ephemeral  scenes  from  daily  life.  Such 
subjects  did  not  come  up  to  the  elevated 
level  of  their  spirituality.  They  exercised, 
however,  a  strong  influence  upon  the  genre 
painters  of  their  period  through  occasional 
sketches  made  from  nature  which  corre- 
sponded to  the  realist  tendency  in  art 
developed  in  the  school  of  Caravaggio.  As 
in  Holland,  genre  painters  like  Nicolaes 
Maes,  the  Fabritius  brothers,  and  Pieter 
de  Hooch  derived  from  Rembrandt, 
so  in  Flanders  genre  painters  like  Rom- 
bouts, Jan  dossiers,  and  Gerard  Seghers 
were  greatly  influenced  by  Rubens.  It 
corresponded  to  the  monumental  style  of 
Flemish  art  that  their  compositions 
extended  to  life-sized  figures,  while  the 
Dutch  preferred  small  figures  in  interiors 
and  in  landscapes. 

The  "Backgammon  Players,"  (Fig.  4), 
is  lent  by  the  John  Flanagan  Buggy  Com- 
pany of  Greenville,  in  memory  of  E.  G. 

1  The  painting,  measuring  44}^  by  37%  inches, 
seems  to  have  been  for  generations  in  the  United  States 
and  was  first  located  under  Rubens's  name  in  the  col- 
lection of  Mrs.  Dickinson,  New  York.  It  passed  through 
the  hands  of  Knoedlers  into  those  of  Jacob  Heimann  in 
Los  Angeles,  who  sold  it  to  Mr.  R.  Dispeker,  a  Swiss 
collector  living  in  Los  Angeles.  After  his  death,  it  was 
acquired  by  the  Schaeffer  Galleries,  New  York,  from 
whence  it  came  into  the  possession  of  J.  B.  Ivey  and 
Company  in  Charlotte,  North  Carolina.  It  was  first 
recognized  as  a  work  by  the  young  Van  Dyck  by  the 
present  writer  (see  G.  Gliick,  Klassiker  der  Kunst,  1931, 
p.  61,  and  L.  van  Puyvelde,  Van  Dyck,  1950,  p.  128). 


Flanagan.  One  of  the  most  outstanding 
works  by  Theodor  Rombouts,  it  is  a  com- 
bination of  the  genre  motif  and  the  group 
portrait,  as  it  represents  the  artist  and  his 
family.  Also  in  this  respect  we  are  reminded 
of  Rubens,  who  more  than  once  painted 
himself  with  his  wife  and  children.  How 
close  Rombouts  comes  in  this  conception 
to  Rubens  is  proved  by  a  drawing  in  the 
Hamburg  museum  for  the  little  girl  in  the 
left  corner  of  our  painting,  which  went 
under  the  name  of  Rubens  until  recently, 
when  L.  Burchard  recognized  it  as  a  study 
by  Rombouts  for  our  painting. 

The  works  of  Rombouts  (1597-1637)  are 
not  sufficiently  known,  as  they  are  very 
rare.  The  artist,  who  died  at  the  age  of 
forty,  was  a  pupil  of  Abraham  Janssens 
and  began  by  painting  subjects  somewhat 
similar  to  those  of  Gerard  Seghers.  His 
"Denial  of  Saint  Peter"  in  the  Liechten- 
stein Gallery,  although  not  a  night  scene 
should  be  compared  with  Seghers's  painting 
of  the  same  subject  in  the  North  Carolina 
Museum  of  Art.  Early  in  life  Rombouts 
went  to  Italy  (1616)  and  lived  in  Rome, 
where  he  was  asked  by  the  Grand  Duke 
of  Tuscany  to  come  to  Florence.  In  Italy 
he  came  under  Caravaggio's  influence  and 
painted  large  life-sized  compositions  with 
figures  in  three-quarter  length,  the  subjects 
usually  being  soldier  scenes  reminding  us 
of  the  period  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War 
which  still  ravaged  the  Netherlands  at 
this  period.  After  his  return  (1625)  the 
influence  of  Rubens  upon  his  style  became 
obvious.  Our  painting,  dated  1634,  shows 
this  in  its  fluid  technique  and  brilliant 
color,  especially  in  the  costume  of  the 
soldier  on  the  right  dressed  in  red  and  yel- 
low. Such  colorful  costumes  can  be  found  at 
the  same  time  in  Holland,  jwhere  Frans 
Hals  developed  a  somewhat  similar  style 


of 


8 


under  the  influence  of  the  painters  of 
Antwerp,  he  himself  being  of  Flemish 
origin. 

Van  Dyck  painted  a  portrait  of  Rom- 
bouts  for  his  Iconography,  from  which  we 
can  identify  the  artist  as  the  soldier  to  the 
right.  As  L.  Burchard  has  pointed  out,  the 
woman  is  his  wife,  Anna  von  Thielen, 
whom  he  married  in  1627;  the  little  girl 
is  his  daughter.2 

Ill 

Sculptures  by  Francois  Duquesnoy 

While  Rembrandt's  tendency  to  dis- 
solve the  human  figure  in  space  was  not 
favorable  to  the  creation  of  sculpture  (an 
art  which,  indeed,  played  a  minor  part  in 
the  Dutch  culture),  Rubens  was  nearer  to 
the  southern  conception  of  art — always 
fond  of  stressing  the  volume  in  the  nude  or 
draped  figure.  His  paintings  appeared  at 
their  best  in  relation  to  the  sculptures  in 
the  baroque  churches  of  his  country  or 
of  Italy. 

Rubens  was  devoted  to  sculpture  and 
brought  with  him  from  Italy  a  collection 
of  classic  Greek  and  Roman  art.  He  also 
kept  up  the  relationship  with  the  Flemish 
sculptors  of  his  time  who  were  either  his 
pupils,  like  Luc  Faidherbe,  for  whom  he 
made  many  sketches  to  be  executed  in 
ivory,  or  friends  like  Duquesnoy  in  Rome, 
who  was  the  leading  Flemish  sculptor 
during  Rubens's  lifetime. 

That  the  best  Flemish  sculptors  had  left 
their  home  towns  or  even  their  country, 



2  On  Theodor  Rombouts  see  A.  von  Schneider, 
Caravaggio  und  die  Niederldnder,  1933,  where  the  painting 
is  reproduced  (plate  44b).  It  comes  from  a  private  col- 
lection in  Cologne  and  was  recommended  to  the  museum 
by  Dr.  E.  Plietzsch.  It  measures  65  inches  in  height 
and  94^  inches  in  width.  The  signature  and  the  date 
1634  are  on  the  edge  of  the  backgammon  board. 


like  Arthur  Quellinus  who  worked  mostly 
in  Holland,  or  Duquesnoy  who  spent  his 
life  in  Italy,  was  due  to  some  extent  to  the 
overpowering  personality  of  Rubens.  Only 
after  his  death  did  an  indigenous  school  of 
sculptors  arise  in  Flanders,  with  Quellinus 
becoming  the  head  of  the  Antwerp  school, 
and  Faidherbe  (who  was  nineteen  when 
he  entered  Rubens's  studio  in  1636)  of 
that  of  Malines. 

Frangois  Duquesnoy  became  a  master 
of  the  Italian  baroque,  forming  with 
Bernini  and  Algardi  the  triumvirate  of 
leading  sculptors  in  Rome.  While  the 
exuberant  pictorial  style  of  Bernini  seems 
nearer  to  Rubens,  Duquesnoy  developed  a 
more  conservative,  classical  conception 
which  connected  him  with  his  friend 
Nicolas  Poussin,  who  lived  at  that  time  in 
Rome.  But  even  so,  a  close  relationship 
was  maintained  between  Rubens  and 
Duquesnoy,  as  we  learn  from  a  letter 
which  Rubens  wrote  to  him  a  few  months 
before  he  died.  The  letter  is  worth  being 
reprinted  as  it  speaks  for  the  great  admira- 
tion Rubens  had  for  his  countryman. 

To  Francois  Duquesnoy 

I  do  not  know  how  to  express  to  you  my  obli- 
gation for  the  models  you  have  sent  me,  and  for 
the  plaster  casts  of  the  two  putti  for  the  epitaph 
of  Van  den  Eynde  in  the  Chiesa  deW  Anima. 
Still  less  can  I  praise  their  beauty  properly.  It 
is  nature,  rather  than  art,  that  has  formed  them; 
the  marble  is  softened  into  living  flesh.  I  hear 
the  praises  for  the  statue  of  St.  Andrew,  just 
unveiled,  and  I,  along  with  all  our  nation, 
rejoice  and  participate  in  your  fame.  If  I  were 
not  detained  here  by  age,  and  by  gout  which 
renders  me  useless,  I  should  go  there  to  enjoy 
with  my  own  eyes,  and  admire  the  perfection 
of  works  so  worthy.  Nevertheless,  I  hope  to  see 
you  here  among   us,   and  that   Flanders,  our 


9 


beloved  country,  will  one  day  be  resplendent 
with  your  illustrious  works.  May  this  be  ful- 
filled before  I  close  my  eyes  forever,  so  that  I 
may  look  upon  all  the  marvels  of  your  hand, 
which  I  kiss  most  affectionately,  praying  that 
God  may  give  you  long  life  and  happiness. 
Tour  most  affectionate  and  obliged  servant, 

Peter  Paul  Rubens 

Antwerp,  April  17,  1640 

The  statue  of  Saint  Andrew  in  Saint 
Peter's  mentioned  in  Rubens's  letter  is  one 
of  the  two  works  which  made  Duquesnoy 
famous  down  to  the  present  day,  the 
other  being  the  "Susanna"  in  Santa  Maria 
di  Loreto,  known  to  all  visitors  to  Roman 
baroque  churches. 

Duquesnoy  was  a  master  in  bronze 
casting,  occupying  the  same  position  in 
this  respect  in  seventeenth  century  Italy 
which  another  Fleming,  Giovanni  da 
Bologna,  had  in  the  sixteenth  century.  The 
two  small  bronze  busts  (Fig.  5)  of  the 
"Young  Christ"  and  "The  Virgin"  (the 
latter  being  similar  to  the  "Susanna") 
which  the  museum  received  as  a  gift  from 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Arthur  W.  Levy  of  Raleigh 
are  well  documented.  Bellori  tells  us  that 
the  terra  cotta  models  belonged  to  Cardinal 
Francesco  Barberini  and  that  Duquesnoy 
executed  the  busts  twice  in  silver,  once  for 
the    Queen    of   England    and    once  for 

3  Height  of  the  bronze  busts  is  9  inches,  length  of  the 
marble  (somewhat  corroded)  cupid,  22  inches.  On 
Francois  Duquesnoy  see  A.  E.  Brinckmann,  "Barock 
Sculptur"  in  Handbuch  fur  Kunstwissenschaft,  1919,  pages 
259-261 ;  Thieme  Becker  Lexikon,  article  by  G.  G.  Sobot- 
ka,  1914;  Leo  Planiscig,  Die  Bronzeplastiken  (Kunsthis- 
orisches  Museum,  Wien),  1924. 


Cardinal  Camillo  Massimi.  The  bronzes 
exist  in  several  versions,  in  the  Berlin 
and  Vienna  museums  and  individually  in 
private  collections. 

Duquesnoy's  fame  is  based,  besides, 
upon  the  many  cupids  he  created  in  bronze 
and  in  marble,  the  casts  of  which  were  used 
by  painters  of  this  period  everywhere.  It 
has  been  rightly  said  that,  especially  in 
his  reliefs  representing  playing  cupids,  he 
was  greatly  influenced  by  Rubens's  earlier 
works  in  which  the  full  forms  of  children 
are  brought  out  with  greater  plasticity 
than  in  his  later  works.  The  generous  gift 
of  Lady  Marcia  Cunliffe-Owen  of  New 
York,  "The  Sleeping  Cupid"  (Fig.  6), 
gives  an  excellent  idea  of  Duquesnoy's 
art  in  depicting  children.  The  motif  goes 
back  to  a  late  Greek  invention,  perhaps 
to  the  bronze  original  of  the  third  century 
B.C.  in  the  Metropolitan  Museum.  It  was 
repeated  in  innumerable  versions  by  Roman 
and  Renaissance  sculptors,  one  of  the  most 
famous  ones  having  been  made  by  the 
young  Michelangelo  in  imitation  of  a 
Roman  work.  Our  example,  in  marble, 
from  Lord  Michelham's  collection,  shows 
the  style  of  the  baroque  masters,  giving  the 
resting  baby  a  full,  plastic  aspect  by  turn- 
ing it  so  that  its  forms  can  be  appreciated 
from  all  sides,  in  contrast  to  the  relief-like 
conception  of  the  Renaissance  masters. 
Together  with  a  likewise  unpublished  ex- 
ample by  the  same  master  in  Wilton  House, 
it  can  be  given  with  probability  to  Du- 
quesnoy, as  in  quality  it  surpasses  the  many 
works  by  followers  which  can  be  found  in 
collections  all  over  Europe.3 


10 


TIEPOLO,  "THE  BANQUET  OF  CLEOPATRA" 


by  W.  R.  Valentiner 


The  North  Carolina  Museum  of  Art  has 
acquired  by  gift  from  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
W.  Lunsford  Long  a  brilliant  painting  by 
Giovanni  Battista  Tiepolo,  1696-1770,  the 
great  Venetian  painter  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  representing  the  "Banquet  of  Cleo- 
patra" (Fig.  8),  The  subject  has  been  taken 
from  Pliny,  who  describes  how  Cleopatra 
had  been  making  a  wager  with  her  lover 
Mark  Antony  that  she  would  be  able  to 
spend  100,000  sestertii  on  one  meal,  which 
Mark  Antony  thought  impossible.  After  the 
meal  had  started  with  a  first  course  of 
not  exceptional  splendor,  before  the  second 
course,  Cleopatra  asked  a  servant  to  bring 
in  a  decanter  of  vinegar.  She  then  took 
off  one  of  her  pearls  she  had  in  her  ears, 
which  were  said  to  be  the  finest  in  the 
world,  threw  it  into  the  vinegar,  and 
after  it  had  dissolved,  drank  the  vinegar. 
Before  she  was  able  to  use  the  second  pearl, 
the  judge  of  the  wager,  named  L.  Placus, 
laid  fast  hold  upon  it  with  his  hand  and 
pronounced  that  Antony  had  lost  the 
wager. 

Tiepolo  has  painted  this  subject  several 
times.  The  best  known  versions  are  those 
of  the  large  panel  painting  in  Melbourne, 
Australia,  formerly  in  the  Hermitage  in 
Leningrad;  and  the  fresco  in  the  Palazzo 
Labia  in  Venice.  The  former  was  painted 
for  the  King  of  Saxony  and  Poland,  King 
August,  in  1743-1744  and  was  acquired  by 
the  Count  Briihl,  his  minister,  from  the 


Count  Algarotti,  a  friend  of  Tiepolo,  in 
Venice.  The  fresco  was  painted  more  than 
ten  years  later  in  1757.  Our  painting  is 
closely  connected  in  style  with  the  Mel- 
bourne painting  and  may  be  the  first 
version,  as  it  shows  the  donor,  probably 
the  Count  Algarotti  or  Count  Briihl,  visible 
to  the  left  behind  a  column.  Another 
interesting  portrait  figure  seen  from  the 
front  is  standing  in  the  left  foreground.  A 
study  for  this  figure  exists  in  black  chalk 
published  in  Old  Master  Drawings,  1935, 
by  the  Baron  Hadeln.  This  study  is  done 
from  a  bust  representing  Palma  Giovane 
by  Alessandro  Vittoria,  which  probably 
was  owned  by  Tiepolo.  Possibly  Tiepolo 
wanted  to  show  by  including  this  portrait 
of  a  sixteenth  century  follower  of  Paolo 
Veronese  the  connection  of  his  art  with 
that  of  Veronese  which  he  has  followed 
closely  in  the  architectural  setting  in  our 
composition.  Our  painting  was  formerly 
in  the  Prince  Leuchtenberg  Collection  at 
Leningrad  and  was  acquired  by  Axel 
Beskow,  a  Swedish  collector,  who  sold  it 
to  a  New  York  art  dealer.  It  has  been 
exhibited  frequently  in  American  museums 
and  is  in  excellent  state  of  preservation 
since  the  old  varnish  and  slight  repaint 
have  been  carefully  removed.  As  Tiepolo 
was  not  represented  in  the  collection,  the 
acquisition  of  an  outstanding  work  by  him 
is  of  great  importance  to  the  museum. 


11 


GOYA,  "THE  TOPERS' 
by  W.  R.  Valentiner 


"The  Topers"  (front  cover)  by  Goya 
which  was  presented  as  a  gift  by  the  Mary 
Reynolds  Babcock  Foundation  is  the  first 
work  representing  the  great  Spanish  master 
in  the  North  Carolina  Museum  of  Art. 

Two  jolly  fellows  in  black  Spanish  cos- 
tumes and  black  felt  hats  are  having  a  good 
time  drinking  and  laughing.  One  screams 
with  laughter,  his  head  turned  back,  his 
mouth  wide  open,  as  he  holds  up  a  glass 
filled  with  claret;  the  other  one,  red-faced 
and  with  full  cheeks,  grins  in  satisfaction, 
showing  his  white  teeth  to  the  spectator 
and  holding  his  wineglass  before  him. 

The  painting  is  a  marvel  of  brilliant 
technique.  Although  almost  in  mono- 
chrome, the  luminous  black  of  the  costumes 
shimmers  in  all  shades  from  dark  purple 
to  gray  and  brown;  the  wine  in  the  glasses 
and  the  open  mouth  of  the  man  to  the  left 
add  touches  of  red;  the  collar  of  the  other 
man  is  dashed  in  with  unmixed  white,  and 
the  background  is  light  gold  and  silver, 
increasing  behind  the  head  of  the  man  to 
the  left,  where  a  candle  seems  to  burn, 
training  its  light  upon  the  fully  lighted 
face  of  the  other  man.  Fleeting  silvery 
touches  mark  the  feet  of  the  glasses. 

The  motif  reminds  us  (even  to  the  dark 
cherry  red  of  the  open  mouth  of  the  man 
to  the  left)  of  Frans  Hals,  who  often  painted 
similar  subjects — a  proof,  by  the  way,  that 
it  was  not  Manet  but  Goya  who  redis- 
covered this  Dutch  master.  But  the  mood 
is  quite  different.  The  laughter  of  Frans 
Hals  is  optimistic,  bouyant — an  expression 
of  a  happy  youth.  Here  there  is  something 
satirical,  self-conscious,  even  sinister,  be- 
hind the  wild  behavior  of  the  two  men, 


who  drink  so  as  to  drown  the  troubles  of  j 
their  impoverished  world.  To  represent 
screaming  laughter  was  not  easy  for  an 
old  man  like  Goya,  who  had  little  to  laugh 
about.  However,  in  this  instance,  he 
undoubtedly  wanted  to  express  his  joy  in 
living,  as  the  picture  was  painted  after  a 
serious  illness  and  is  dedicated  to  his  doctor. 

In  the  background  we  read  in  dim 
letters  the  word  "Medico."  This  indicates 
that  he  dedicated  the  painting  to  the  same  ! 
doctor,  Arrieta,  represented  with  him  in  i 
the  famous  self-portrait  in  Minneapolis.  The  I 
painting,  therefore,  not  only  is  a  realistic  r 
representation,  as  in  the  case  of  Frans  " 
Hals,  but  has  a  double,  symbolic  meaning  1 
like  many  works  of  Goya.  In  the  self-  j 
portrait  he  represented  himself  almost  1 
fainting,  falling  back  weakly  in  his  chair,  I 
while  the  doctor  supports  him,  giving  him  ( 
a  glass  of  wine  to  drink.  Does  he  mean,  in  { 
our  painting,  that  the  wine  is  really  the  1 
preserver  of  life,  and  does  he  make  fun  of  \ 
the  doctor  a  little?  Who  knows? 

The  year  1819,  when  our  painting  was  p 
executed,   was   a  fearful   one   for   Goya.  ,4 
Being   the   painter  of  the   court  of  the  f 
tyrannical,  cruel  and  decadent  ruler,  Ferdi-  ir 
nand  VII,  yet  at  the  same  time  belonging  st 
to  the  liberal  party,  his  life  was  in  constant  G 
danger.  When  Ferdinand  returned  (1814)  | 
after  having  been  driven  out  the  first  time,  i 
and  was  taking  gruesome  revenge  on  his  m 
enemies,  he  is  supposed  to  have  said  to 
Goya,  "You  deserve  to  be  hanged,  but  as 
you  are  a  great  artist,  I  will  let  you  go 
free."  In  1819  another  liberal  revolution 
began,    which    in    the   next   year  drove 
Ferdinand    out    a   second    time,  though 


12 


unfortunately  for  only  three  years.  For 
Goya,  who  was  73,  it  was  one  of  the  most 
creative  years.  He  had  retired  to  a  small 
country  place  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Manzanares  near  Madrid,  called  the 
Quinta  del  Sordo,  or  house  of  the  deaf 
man  (Goya  was  deaf  by  this  time).  Here 
he  painted  murals,  the  famous  "pitturas 
negras,"  in  a  number  of  the  rooms.  At 
the  same  time  he  was  working  on  his 
great  series  of  etchings,  "The  Disasters  of 
War."  In  the  summer  of  this  year  he 
executed  two  of  his  most  impressive  re- 
ligious works,  "The  Last  Communion  of 
St.  Joseph  of  Calasanz"  and  the  "Agony 
in  the  Garden"  both  in  a  church  in  Madrid. 
In  contrast,  he  also  worked  on  paintings 
representing  scenes  from  everyday  life: 
"The  Forge"  in  the  Frick  Collection,  "The 
Knife  Grinder"  in  Budapest,  and  portraits, 
among  them  the  Don  Juan  Antonio  Cuerbo, 
Director  of  the  Royal  Academy  of  San 
Fernando,  in  the  Godfrey  S.  Rockefeller 
Collection.  After  this  tremendous  effort  he 
became  seriously  ill  at  the  end  of  1819. 
When  he  recovered  he  must  have  painted  the 
Minneapolis  self-portrait  and  our  "Topers." 

It  is  our  good  fortune  that  just  this  great 
period  in  Goya's  life  is  well  represented  in 
American  collections:  "The  Forge"  in  the 
Frick  Collection  and  the  Cuerbo  portait 
in  the  Rockefeller  Collection,  to  which 
should  be  added  the  great  portrait  of 
Goya's  friend  Perez  in  the  Metropolitan 
Museum  (1820)  and  the  self-portrait  with 
the  doctor  in  Minneapolis.  To  these  comes 
now  as  a  new  addition  in  American  col- 


lections "The  Topers"  in  the  North  Caro- 
lina Museum  of  Art. 

Common  to  all  these  paintings  is  the 
preference  for  sombre  colors,  especially 
black.  It  is  well  known  that  many  of  the 
great  masters  came  at  the  end  of  their 
life  to  a  similar  color  scheme,  in  which 
local  colors  are  suppressed.  This  is  true  of 
Titian,  Tintoretto,  Frans  Hals,  and  Rem- 
brandt. Titian  remarked  in  his  late  years 
that  one  could  express  almost  everything 
with  black  and  white,  which  he  liked  best. 
In  Goya's  case  it  went  well  with  his  intense 
interest  in  black  and  white  graphic  works, 
which  occupied  a  good  deal  of  his  time  in 
later  life  (Disasters  of  War,  Disparates, 
Tauromachia). 

Goya  was  the  last  of  the  great  old  masters, 
but  he  was  also  the  first  great  modern 
one.  He  has  often  been  praised  as  the 
father  of  the  impressionists,  but  in  his 
demonic,  visionary  concept,  he  is  even 
more  so  the  predecessor  of  great  expres- 
sionists like  Munch,  Nolde  and  Orozco. 
Thus  it  is  of  major  importance  that  his 
art  is  represented  in  the  North  Carolina 
Museum  of  Art  with  an  example  which 
expresses  his  connection  with  modern  art 
as  well  as  with  the  old  masters. 

"The  Topers,"  reproduced  in  many 
books  on  Goya  and  exhibited  frequently, 
comes  from  the  collections  of  the  Due  de 
Osuna,  Madrid,  and  the  collections  Nemes 
and  Herzog  in  Budapest.  It  has  been  ex- 
hibited in  Budapest  (1911)  and  in  Munich 
and  Diisseldorf  (1912)  and  in  Baltimore 
(1954). 


13 


HENRY  FUSELI,  "THE  THREE  WEIRD  SISTERS'" 


by  May  Davis  Hill 


An  unusual  figure  on  the  artistic  stage 
at  the  turn  of  the  ninetenth  century  was  the 
Swiss-born  Johann  Heinrich  Fiissli  (1741- 
1825),  who  adopted  the  name  of  Henry 
Fuseli.  Although  his  father  was  a  painter, 
his  older  brother,  not  Henry,  was  chosen 
to  carry  on  the  family  profession,  while 
Henry  was  required  to  study  for  the 
Lutheran  ministry.  Soon  after  his  ordi- 
nation in  1761,  he  threw  off  these  shackles 
in  favor  of  a  career  as  a  writer. 

His  authorship  of  a  bold  political  pam- 
phlet, which  attacked  a  Zurich  official, 
forced  Fuseli  to  leave  the  town  of  his  birth 
and  go  in  1763  to  Berlin.  Here  he  made 
the  acquaintance  of  the  British  ambassador 
to  the  Prussian  court,  with  whom  he 
eventually  travelled  to  England  in  1764. 
A  long-time  Anglophile,  he  quickly  adopted 
the  English  form  of  his  name  and  became 
a  confirmed  resident  of  London. 

Continuing  his  literary  activity,  Fuseli 
became  associated  with  the  publisher 
Johnson  and  translated  Winckelmann's 
Reflections  on  the  Painting  and  Sculpture  of  the 
Greeks.  His  interest  in  classical  culture  soon 
after  reappeared  in  a  defense  of  Rousseau 
(1767)  which  was  published  anonymously. 

From  childhood  Fuseli  had  maintained 
a  lively  interest  in  art.  While  pretending 
to  study  he  had  used  his  left  hand  to  make 
drawings  which  he  concealed  from  his 
tutor,  thus  becoming  ambidextrous  (his 
drawings  are  nearly  all  left-handed).  At 
the  encouragement  of  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds, 
who  praised  his  sketches,  Fuseli  embarked 
in  1769  on  a  nine-year  sojourn  in  Italy, 
where  Michelangelo  and  the  mannerists 


were  his  chief  sources  of  study  and  inspira- 
tion. On  his  return,  even  though  he  con- 
tinued to  write,  he  settled  near  William 
Blake,  who  was  to  become  his  lifelong 
friend,  and  soon  became  known  as  a  history 
painter,  much  to  his  liking;  among  his 
first  important  works  were  nine  illustrations 
of  Shakespeare's  works  done  for  BoydelPs 
Shakespeare  Gallery  (1786  to  1790)  and 
other  similar  projects.  He  became  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Royal  Academy  and  eventually 
was  to  hold  (for  the  first  time  in  its  history) 
double  offices  in  it:  those  of  Keeper  and 
Lecturer.  Throughout  his  career  Fuseli 
maintained  his  connection  with  the 
mannerists,  emphasizing  the  weird  and 
the  fantastic.  The  painting  "The  Night- 
mare" (1783)  is  held  to  be  his  most  famous 
work,  and  is  typical  of  his  mystical  imagery. 

Among  his  numerous  illustrations  to 
Shakespeare  Fuseli  did  many  from  Mac- 
beth, among  them  several  versions  of  the 
scene  on  the  heath  in  which  the  three 
witches  appear  to  Macbeth.  The  North 
Carolina  Museum  of  Art  has  just  acquired 
an  excellent  example  of  Fuseli's  treat- 
ment of  the  subject,  through  the  generosity 
of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Peter  P.  Williams  of 
Raleigh.  Dating  from  the  same  year  as  the 
"Nightmare,"  "The  Three  Weird  Sisters" 
(Fig.  9)  is  painted  in  oil  on  canvas  \9lA 
inches  in  height  and  24  ^  2  inches  wide  in 
tones  of  silver  gray  with  a  dark  red  back 
ground,  heightened  by  the  red  flames  of 
the  witches'  fire.  Three  hooded  crones  are 
seen  in  profile,  looking  to  the  left,  each 
with  her  right  fore-finger  to  her  lips,  her 
left  hand  and  arm  extended  pointing  to 


14 


the  left.  Below  the  pointing  fingers  (so 
reminiscent  of  Blake's  "Job  and  His 
Friends")  a  stick  fire  burns,  while  above 
the  hands  flutters  a  large  death's  head 
moth.  A  supernatural  wind  seems  to  blow 
the  hair  of  the  first  witch  forward  into  the 
firelight,  though  the  flowing  sleeves  and 
the  fire  are  mysteriously  unaffected. 

Specimens  of  the  weird-looking  death's 
head  moth  were  much  sought  in  this 
time  of  classic-romantic  notions.  Its  ap- 
pearance here  reminds  us  that  the  artist 
and  his  entire  family  had  a  particular 
interest  in  entomology — a  strange  one, 
when  we  recall  that  Fuseli  seldom  painted 
from  nature.  He  preferred  his  own  imagi- 
nation over  outside  sources  of  inspiration, 
having  once  remarked,  "Damn  Nature'— 
she  always  puts  me  out." 

Walpole,  who  was  habitually  cruel  to 
Fuseli's  works,  was,  according  to  Leslie's 
Reynolds,  more  merciful  toward  the  "Weird 
Sisters"  than  his  other  paintings,  saying 
of  it,  "Not  bad,  but  more  like  old  men 
than  old  women."  Whether  we  agree  with 
Walpole  or  not,  we  note  that  after  examin- 
ing all  the  works  of  the  artist,  Walpole  ap- 
parently felt  this  painting  to  be  outstanding. 

There  are  several  known  versions  of 
Fuseli's  "Three  Weird  Sisters,"  or  "Three 
Witches"  as  they  are  called  elsewhere. 
One  hangs  in  the  Kunsthaus  in  Zurich, 
the  artist's  native  city;  another  is  in  the 
Shakespeare  Memorial  Theatre  at 
Stratford-Upon-Avon;  and  a  third,  a 
grisaille   probably  done   for   one   of  the 


1  Further  information  on  Fuseli  may  be  found  in  the 
work  of  F.  Antal,  Fuseli  Studies,  London,  1956;  N.  Powell, 
The  Drawings  of  Henry  Fuseli,  London,  1951;  R.  and  S. 
Redgrave,  A  Century  of  British  Painters,  London,  1947. 
The  1806  edition  of  Pilkington's  Dictionary  of  Painters, 
published  by  J.  Johnson  and  others,  was  edited  by 
Fuseli. 


engravings  of  the  painting  made  by  J.  H. 
Lips  and  J.  R.  Smith,  is  in  the  New  York 
art  market.  Compared  to  the  painting  in 
Zurich  our  painting  is  shortened  on  the 
left  (the  pointing  fingers  are  not  complete), 
and  at  the  bottom.  There  is  evidence  that 
the  canvas  has  been  cut  down.  However, 
Lip's  engraving  of  1807  and  Mitchell's 
lithograph  of  1873  are  nearer  to  the 
proportions  of  our  painting.  The  former 
shows  the  left  edge  cut  off  just  beyond  the 
tips  of  the  fingers,  while  the  latter  cuts  off 
the  tip  of  the  finger  which  is  farthest 
extended.  This  would  indicate  that  our 
painting  was  cut  at  some  time  between 
1807  and  1873. 

The  subject  of  this  painting  is  recorded 
in  Thieme-Becker  Lexikon  (XII,  567),  in  the 
Catalogue  of  the  Royal  Academy,  London, 
1783,  page  4,  No.  10,  and  in  J.  Frankan's 
work  on  the  lithographer,  John  Raphael 
Smith,  No.  371,  page  240  (Smith  produced 
a  lithograph  copy  of  it  in  1873). 

"The  Three  Weird  Sisters"  came  from 
the  collection  of  Dr.  Alfred  Ruetenberg 
in  Rueschlikon,  near  Zurich,  and  was 
bought  from  the  Baden-Baden  branch  of 
the  Berlin  art  firm  Erhardt  and  Company 
in  the  1920's.  It  came  to  the  United  States 
through  the  Moore  firm  in  London;  Mr. 
W.  Roberts  and  Sir  Charles  Holmes  have 
certified  it.  Antal  has  pointed  out  its 
relationship  to  Rosso,  Salviati,  and  David 
{Fuseli  Studies,  1956,  p.  39,  77). 1 

Fuseli  used  the  same  three  pointing 
witches  in  variant  attitudes  in  another 
painting,  "Macbeth  Meeting  the  Witches 
on  the  Heath"  which  was  also  a  part  of 
BoydelPs  Shakespeare  Gallery.  The  simi- 
larity of  the  representations  of  the  witches 
from  painting  to  painting  reminds  us  that, 
as  Antal  has  pointed  out,  the  artist  who 


15 


draws  from  his  own  imagination  is  less 
apt  to  vary  his  representations  of  the  same 
subject  than  the  artist  who  copies  models 
from  nature. 

Fuseli's  vivid  and  sometimes  weird  imagi- 
nation is  what  enlists  the  public's  attention 
today.  Not  only  his  subject  matter,  but 
also  the  bizarre  manner  in  which  he 
chooses  to  depict  it  has  especially  great 


appeal  to  us  now  when  expressionism  comes 
so  naturally  as  a  means  of  communication 
in  all  the  arts.  The  museum  is  indeed 
fortunate  to  own  a  painting  by  one  of  the 
ancestors  of  modern  expressionism.  His 
influence  on  painters  from  Blake  to  the 
present  may  perhaps  become  more  and 
more  apparent  in  later  additions  to  the 
collection. 


16 


THOMAS  SULLY 


by  James  B.  Byrnes 


The  recent  gift  of  the  painting,  "The 
Sully  Children,"  1  by  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury American  artist  Thomas  Sully  (1783- 
:  872)  is  of  special  significance  to  our 
museum,  since  Sully  played  an  important 
role  in  early  North  Carolina  cultural  his- 
tory. The  painting  (Fig.  10)  comes  to  the 
museum  as  the  gift  of  Mrs.  O.  Max  Gardner 
of  Shelby,  North  Carolina;  before  discussing 
it,  we  might  explore  briefly  the  artist's 
background  and  his  special  service  to  this 
state. 

Born  in  Horncastle,  Lincolnshire,  Eng- 
and  in  June,  1783,  Thomas  Sully 2  was 
the  youngest  son  of  Matthew  and  Sarah 
Sully,  actors,  who  with  their  large  band  of 
nine  children  migrated  to  Charleston, 
South  Carolina,  late  in  1792.  Charleston, 
(Charles'  Town  until  1783),  was  as  early 
,as  1700  considered  a  place  of  gaiety  and 
a  center  of  music  and  dancing.  A  few 
months  after  the  Sullys  landed,  a  new 
theatre  was  opened,  with  much  pomp  and 
ceremony.  This  event  may  have  persuaded 
the  family  to  take  up  residence. 

In  the  bustling  seaport  town,  it  was 
quite  natural  that  Thomas  was  apprenticed 
to  an  insurance  broker  at  the  age  of  twelve. 

1  "The  Sully  Children"  (Group  of  five)  Oil  on 
canvas  55%"  x  39".  Described:  Edward  Biddle  and 
Mantle  Fielding,  The  Life  and  Works  of  Thomas  Sully. 
(Philadelphia,  Wickersham  Press,  1921.)  Hereinafter 
;ited  as  Biddle  and  Fielding,  Thomas  Sully.  Page  292 
—Cat.  No.  1748.  "Begun  August  3,  1822— finished 
May  21,  1824."  Unsigned.  Size  is  given  as  44"  x  56". 
Account  of  Pictures.  Diary  of  Thomas  Sully,  Cat.  No. 
1623.  "Jane,  Blanche,  Ellen,  Rosalie,  Alfred.  Group  of 
my  children  for  their  mother." 

Former  collections:  Mrs.  Charles  A.  Klink,  Germantown, 
Pa.  (Purchased  in  sale— 1872).  Mr.  Douglas  Klink, 
Philadelphia,  Pa.  (See  L'tr.  June  19,  1956 -Klink  to 
V^alentiner).  Gift  of  Mrs.  O.  Max  Gardner,  Shelby, 
V.  C. 

2  General  reference — Biddle  and  Fielding,  Thomas 
'iully,  passim. 


However,  a  note  home  from  the  broker 
to  the  effect  that  he  ".  .  .  was  very  indus- 
trious in  multiplying  figures,  (but)  they 
are  figures  of  men  and  women"  prompted 
the  elder  Sullys  to  send  the  boy  to  school, 
where  he  met  Charles  Fraser,  the  miniature 
painter,  of  whom  Sully  later  wrote,  "He 
was  the  first  person  that  ever  took  the  pains 
to  instruct  me  in  the  rudiments  of  art,  and 
although  himself  a  mere  tyro,  his  kindness, 
and  the  progress  made  in  consequence  of 
it,  determined  the  course  of  my  future 
life." 

At  about  the  time  Sully  parted  company 
with  the  insurance  brokerage,  one  of  his 
younger  sisters  married  a  "Mons.  Belzons," 
a  French  refugee  and  painter  of  miniatures 
who  was  living  in  Charleston.  After  the 
death  of  Sully's  mother  in  1798,  he  lived 
with  this  brother-in-law,  who,  it  seems, 
was  not  as  patient  and  understanding  as 
was  his  friend  Fraser.  Following  a  quarrel, 
Thomas  is  reported  to  have  slept  out  all 
night  rather  than  return  to  the  Belzons' 
studio,  and  after  debating  whether  to  go 
before  the  mast,  he  finally  traveled  to 
Richmond,  Virginia,  to  join  his  oldest 
brother  Lawrence.  Lawrence  Sully  (1769- 
1803)  had  married  Sarah  Annis  (1779- 
1867)  of  Annapolis,  Maryland;  together 
they  had  three  children,  one  of  whom 
eventually  married  the  artist  John  Neagle. 

Thomas  traveled  with  the  family  when 
they  moved  to  Norfolk  in  1801,  and  followed 
them  back  to  Richmond  in  1803,  where 
after  a  brief  illness  Lawrence  Sully  died. 
Thomas  took  over  the  support  of  his 
widowed  sister-in-law,  and  on  June  27, 
1805,   they  married   in  Warren  County, 


17 


i^orth  Carolina  Stale  L^rar 
Raleigh 


North  Carolina.3  A  year  later  in  Norfolk, 
a  visiting  English  actor,  Thomas  Abthorpe 
Cooper,  sat  to  Sully  for  a  portrait;  delighted 
with  the  result,  he  persuaded  the  artist  to 
move  his  ready-made  family  to  New  York. 
Cooper  became  a  benefactor  of  the  artist 
by  going  among  his  acquaintances  soliciting 
portrait  commissions.  A  letter  of  intro- 
duction which  Cooper  had  given  him  was 
circuitously  responsible  for  Sully's  meeting 
with  the  dean  of  American  painters, 
Gilbert  Stuart.  The  letter  recommended 
Sully  to  the  attention  of  Andrew  Allen  of 
Boston,  who  was  at  the  time  of  its  delivery, 
being  painted  by  Stuart.  Sully  was  invited 
to  Stuart's  studio,  where  the  older  artist 
arranged  for  Sully  to  paint  Isaac  P.  Davis's 
portrait,  which  after  completion  was  to  be 
presented  for  Stuart's  criticism.  "Keep 
what  you  have  got,  and  get  as  much  as 
you  can"  was  Stuart's  cryptic  advice. 

Returning  to  New  York,  Sully  decided 
to  move  to  Philadelphia,  where  he  settled 
in  1808.  Except  for  two  trips  abroad,  he 
was  to  remain  in  various  studios  in  the 
"City  of  Brotherly  Love"  during  his  long 
lifetime. 

Sully's  early  training  in  keeping  accounts 
is  probably  responsible  for  his  careful 
listing  of  the  more  than  2,600  paintings 
produced  during  his  seventy-one  years  of 
painting  activity.  Begun  in  1801,  Sully's 
log,  titled  "An  Account  of  Pictures," 
recorded  all  of  his  works  and  listed  their 
value.  It  is  this  record  to  which  we  are 
indebted  for  the  reconstruction  of  the 
artist's  life.  The  "Account"  lists  his  first 
portrait  in  Philadelphia  as  that  of  the 
sister  of  Benjamin  Chew  Wilcocks.  Mr. 
Wilcocks,  like  Cooper,  was  also  to  become 


3  Memorial  Exhibition  of  Portraits  by  Thomas  Sully. 
April  9,  1922— May  10,  1922.  (Pennsylvania  Academy 
of  Fine  Arts)  Page  105.  Cat.  No.  152. 


a  benefactor.  Learning  of  Sully's  ambition 
to  travel  to  Europe,  Wilcocks  persuaded 
six  of  his  friends  to  post  two  hundred  dollars 
each,  which  Sully  would  repay  by  copy- 
ing masterpieces  abroad.  In  high  spirits, 
Sully  applied  for  American  citizenship, 
which  was  granted  on  May  17,  1809;  he 
sailed  for  Liverpool  on  June  10.  Armed 
with  a  letter  of  introduction  from  the 
Philadelphian,  William  Rawles,  Sully  called 
upon  the  expatriate  American  painter 
Benjamin  West.  Always  hospitable  to  young 
artists,  West  offered  to  criticize  a  portrait 
by  Sully,  despite  the  fact  that  the  elder 
artist  was  known  not  to  be  "disposed  to  the 
waste  of  talent  in  painting  portraits,"  pre 
ferring  to  concentrate  on  "history 
painting,"  which  was  sweeping  the  conti- 
nent at  the  time. 

Sully  chose  to  paint  a  portrait  of  his 
artist  friend  Charles  Bird  King,  with  whom 
he  shared  a  studio  during  his  nine-month 
stay.  West  advised  Sully  that  his  portrait 
"betrayed  a  lack  of  knowledge  of  internal 
structure,"  and  counselled  him  to  study 
osteology!  Sully's  compliance  was  to  paint 
from  the  model  during  the  day,  and  tc 
copy  from  early  anatomical  drawings  and 
engravings  at  night.  When  West  learned 
of  Sully's  difficulty  in  obtaining  permission 
to  copy  masterpieces  in  private  collections 
to  repay  his  debt,  he  offered  the  resource 
of  his  own  collection,  permitting  the  work 
to  be  taken  to  Sully's  studio  to  simplify 
the  artist's  work.  From  his  records  we  lean 
that   Sully  copied   West's   "Pylades  anc 
Orestes,"  a  "Holy  Family"  after  Correggio 
and    the  "Madonna    della    Sedia"  b 
Raphael.    During   his   stay   in  England 
Sully  called  upon  Sir  Thomas  Lawrence 
from   whom   he   received   instruction  ii 
painting.    Lawrence's    influence    on  th 
young  artist  was  so  great  that  he  wa 


18 


eventually  to  be  referred  to  as  the  "Ameri- 
can Sir  Thomas  Lawrence." 

Back  in  Philadelphia  in  1810,  Sully 
settled  with  his  family  and  hung  out  his 
shingle  as  a  "History  and  Portrait  Painter." 

On  January  11,  1817,  the  Governor  of 
North  Carolina,  The  Honorable  William 
Miller,4  wrote  his  Philadelphia  friend  Mr. 
Daniel  L.  Peck,5  asking  that  he  recommend 
an  artist  in  his  city  who  could  paint  two 
portraits  of  George  Washington  to  hang 
in  the  House  and  Senate  rooms  of  the 
State  Capitol.  Peck  recommended  Sully, 
who  in  turn  suggested  that  he  would  prefer 
to  make  one  full-length  portrait  of  the 
late  general,  and  another  showing  Wash- 
ington in  some  "well-known  incident  in 
the  Revolutionary  War — for  instance,  the 
passage  of  the  Delaware  preparatory  to 
the  Battle  of  Princeton."  6  Sully  was  given 
permission  to  carry  out  the  project,7  copy- 

4  During  the  term  of  office  of  Governor  William  Miller, 
the  State  Legislature  of  North  Carolina  empowered 
him  to  commission  two  paintings  and  one  sculpture  of 
George  Washington.  The  resultant  works  by  Sully  and 
Canova  will  be  the  subject  of  a  forthcoming  article. 

6  William  Miller,  Letter  Book  1876-7817.  (Department 
of  Archives  and  History,  State  of  North  Carolina) 
Pages  214-215.  January  11,  1817.  William  Miller  to 
Daniel  L.  Peck. 

6  Ibid.  Page  331.  June  3,  1817.  Thomas  Sully  to  Gov- 
ernor William  Miller. 

7  Ibid.  Page  286.  April  19,  1817.  Miller  to  Peck. 
Pages  332-333.  June  15,  1817.  Miller  to  Sully. 

8  Biddle  and  Fielding,  Thomas  Sully.  Catalog  No.  2616. 
Edgar  P.  Richardson,  American  Romantic  Painting. 
(New  York,  E.  Weyhe,  1944.)  Catalogue  No.  33. 
Reproduced  Plate  33. 

9  Sully's  letter  to  Governor  Miller— June  3,  1817 — 
originallly  proposed  the  size  as  10'  x  8',  which  was 
approved.  (See  L'tr.  332-333,  June  15,  1817,  Miller  to 
Sully.) 

10  Raleigh  Register,  Friday  November  27,  1818. 

11  "The  Passage  of  the  Delaware"  Cat.  63.1079 
Museum  of  Fine  Arts,  Boston.  Size  146  J 4  x  207  inches. 
Signed  and  dated  1.  r.,  T.  S.  (in  monogram)  "Fecit 
1819."  Coll.  Hall  of  Curios,  old  Boston  Museum, 
Tremont  Street,  Before  1849.  E.  A.  Greenwood,  Pro- 
prietor of  Old  Boston  Museum.  John  Doggett,  Dealer 
(After  Rejection)  According  to  Dunlap,  History  of  the 
Arts  in  the  U.  S.  (1918  ed.)  two  small  studies  were  made 
of  the  painting.  One,  purchased  by  Sir  James  Wright, 
Edinburgh,  the  other,  by  Col.  I.  Ash  of  Georgetown, 
S.  C. 

Virgil  Barker,  American  Painting.  (New  York,  Mac- 
Millan,  1950.)  Page  453. 


ing  the  Lansdowne  portrait  of  George 
Washington  by  Gilbert  Stuart  at  Governor 
Miller's  suggestion,  and  painting  the 
"Washington  at  the  Passage  of  the  Dela- 
ware," 8  which  eventually  was  not  delivered, 
because  Sully,  not  receiving  a  reply  to 
his  request  for  specific  dimensions  of  the 
space  allocated,  proceeded  to  paint  the 
work  on  a  canvas  12'  5"  by  17'  3". 9 

The  "Portrait  of  George  Washington," 
Sully's  copy  after  Stuart,  still  hangs  in  the 
House  chamber  of  our  State  Capitol. 
Delivered  on  November  26,  181 8, 111  il 
survived  the  fire  in  the  original  Capitol  in 
June,  1831.  Together  with  the  Speaker's 
chair  and  State  records,  it  was  rescued. 

The  "Washington  at  the  Passage  of  the 
Delaware,"  having  proved  to  be  too  large, 
was  finally  sold  to  a  Boston  frame  maker, 
in  1892  it  passed  into  the  possession  of  the 
Boston  Museum  of  Fine  Arts,11  where  il 
has  remained. 

Between  August  3,  1822,  and  May  21, 
1824,  the  period  during  which  Sully 
worked  on  our  canvas,  "The  Sully 
Children,"  he  lived  at  49  George  Street, 
(today  Sansom  Street),  in  Philadelphia. 

Working  on  the  group  portrait  of  five 
of  his  nine  children  over  a  period  of  two 
years  must  have  presented  some  problems 
for  the  artist.  The  time  lapse  may  account 
for  certain  incongruities  in  the  canvas, 
which,  happily,  like  discordant  notes  in 
music,  frequently  sharpen  the  whole  com- 
position. For  example,  the  children's  ages 
seem  to  be  at  variance,  some  having  been 
painted  at  the  beginning  of  the  project  and 
others  towards  the  end,  two  years  later. 
Starting  from  the  left,  the  ages  of  the  sitters 
descend  in  clockwise  fashion.  Jane  Cooper, 
the  oldest  daughter,  born  in  1807,  appears 
to  be  at  maturity;  possibly  she  was  painted 
in  1824  when  she  was  seventeen.  Blanche, 


19 


who  peeks  over  Jane's  shoulder,  born  in 
1814,  may  also  have  been  inserted  in  1824, 
when  she  would  have  been  ten.  However, 
shy  Ellen  cannot  be  more  than  six — having 
been  born  in  1816,  she  must  have  been 
painted  in  the  first  phase  of  the  work  in 
1822.  Rosalie  Kemble,  the  charming  Pan, 
hovers  between  the  ages  of  four  and  six; 
born  in  1818,  her  portrait  was  possibly 
started  in  1822  and  finished  in  1824.  Finally, 
baby  Alfred,  who  sleeps  in  a  Correggiesque 
manner,  was  born  in  1820,  and  was 
undoubtedly  finished  in  1822  at  the  age 
of  two. 

The  sharpest  contrast  in  the  painting  is 
that  of  Jane,  whose  classical  profile  in  the 
shadow  of  the  room  has  overtones  of 
academic  prettiness,  whereas  Rosalie,  who 
dances  with  the  flute  on  the  terrace,  is 
almost  an  echo  of  the  eighteenth  century 
English  painter  Sir  William  Beechey. 

Of  all  his  children,  Sully  seemed  to  favor 
Blanche  (1814-1898).  When  Sully  was 
commissioned  to  paint  Queen  Victoria12 
by  the  Philadelphia  Society  of  the  Sons  of 
St.  George  in  1838,  he  took  Blanche  to 
England  with  him,  where  she  often  acted 
as  a  stand-in  when  the  forty-pound  regalia 
became  too  heavy  for  the  Queen. 

After  the  death  of  her  mother  in  1867, 
Blanche  took  care  of  her  father  until  his 
death  in  1872;  she  survived  him  by  twenty- 
six  years,  finally  passing  away  at  the  age 
of  84. 

Jane  Sully  (1807-1877),  the  oldest 
daughter,  also  painted  portraits,  many  of 
which  her  father  retouched.  In  1833  she 


12  Biddle  and  Fielding,  Thomas  Sully.  Catalog  items; 
1853,  Page  304-1856,  Page  305.  A  version  of  the  painting 
"Queen  Victoria  in  Robes  of  State"  was  presented  to 
the  St.  Andrew's  Society  of  Charleston,  S.  C. 


married  William  Henry  W.  Darley,  brother 
of  the  illustrator  Felix  Darley. 

Ellen  Oldmixon  Sully  (1816-1896),  the 
retiring  subject  in  our  portrait,  married 
John  Hill  Wheeler  (1806-1882)  on 
November  8,  1838.  Wheeler  is  the  author 
of  Historical  Sketches  of  North  Carolina, 
published  in  Philadelphia  in  1851.  He 
also  served  as  United  States  Minister  to 
Nicaragua  (1854-1857). 

Rosalie  Kemble  (1818-1847),  our  spirited 
wood-sprite,  may  have  received  her  name 
from  the  Kemble  family,  close  friends  of 
Sir  Thomas  Lawrence.  "Fanny  Kemble," 
granddaughter  of  Sarah  Siddons,  came  to 
the  United  States  in  1832,  where  she 
gained  fame  as  an  actress.  Sully  painted 
thirteen  portraits  of  her  in  various  theatrical 
roles. 

Alfred  (1820-1879),  youngest  son  of  the 
artist,  graduated  from  West  Point  in  1841. 
He  was  assigned  to  the  Second  Infantry, 
which  was  engaged  in  war  with  the  Semi- 
nole Indians.  In  1853  he  was  involved 
with  operations  against  the  Rouge  River 
Indians,  and  in  1860  against  the  Cheyennes. 
During  the  War  Between  the  States,  he 
was  variously  assigned  in  Fair  Oaks, 
Malvern  Hill,  and  Chancellorsville.  At  the 
close  of  the  war  he  was  brevetted  Major 
General  of  the  Volunteers  and  Brigadier 
General  in  the  Regular  Army.  In  1850  he 
married  Manuella  Zimeno,  of  Monterey, 
California,  and  in  1864  he  again  married; 
his  second  wife  was  Henrietta  Wilson  of 
England. 

We  are  most  pleased  to  possess  this 
early  painting  by  Sully.  The  artist  himself 
prized  it  highly,  since  only  seventeen  of 
his  twenty-six  hundred  and  thirty  works 
were  listed  by  him  at  a  greater  amount 


than  the  original  five  hundred  dollar  value 
of  our  canvas.13  Most  of  Sully's  critics 
agree  that  his  best  works  date  before  1830, 
as  does  ours;  after  that  date  his  work 
became  superficially  slick  and  formless. 
His  female  portraits  suffered  from  over- 
prettiness,  and  it  would  appear  that  for 
the  forty-odd  years  he  was  to  live,  his 

13  Sully's  prices  averaged  from  ten  dollars  to  one 
hundred  for  smaller  portraits.  Larger  works  ranged  up 
to  four  hundred  dollars.  The  highest  value  he  placed  on 
a  work  was  for  the  "Queen  Victoria"  given  to  Charles- 
ton, S.  C,  valued  at  two  thousand  dollars. 

14  Text  of  letter  inscribed  on  page  with  drawing  of 
boy  with  a  cat,  by  Thomas  Sully.  Anonymous  gift. 
My  dear  Sir 

I  have  a  sincere  desire  to  comply  with  your/ 
request;  but  I  am  so  little  in  the  habit  of  making  sketches 
in/pencil,  fit  to  keep  company  with  the  works  of  those 
gentlemen  w(ho)/have  contributed  to  your  collection; 
that  I  have  great  diffidence/in  sending  you  the  above 
scratch.  It  was  taken  from  nature/and  I  should  be  glad 
for  your  sake  it  were  better. 

With  respect 
Your  Obt  St. 
Thos  S(ully) 

(Char)les  Lansmace  (?)  Esq. 
Phila  June  15th  1849 


portraits  were  "pot-boilers,"  with  no  inner 
fire.  One  wonders  had  Sully  interpreted 
West's  criticism  of  his  work  as  "evidencing 
lack  of  knowledge  of  inner  structure" 
philosophically  rather  than  anatomically, 
whether  he  might  not  have  become  a 
greater  artist.  We  know  that  Sully  was 
conscious  of  his  lack  of  skill  in  drawing, 
for  in  a  letter  of  1849  in  our  collection  he 
writes  "...  am  so  little  in  the  habit  of 
making  sketches  in  pencil,  fit  to  keep 
company  with  the  works  of  those  gentlemen 
who  have  contributed  to  your  collection."  14 
Despite  the  lack  of  success  of  the  work 
of  his  late  years,  the  period  in  which  he  is 
represented  in  North  Carolina  reflects  the 
best  of  his  art,  connecting  it  with  the  older 
generation  of  painters,  Charles  Willson 
Peale,  Ralph  Earl,  and  Gilbert  Stuart, 
all  of  whom  passed  away  before  the  close 
of  the  Federal  Era  in  1830. 


21 


ACQUISITIONS  OF  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  PAINTINGS 

by  Ben  F.  Williams 


Among  the  twenty-three  paintings  re- 
ceived by  the  North  Carolina  Museum  of 
Art  since  its  opening  April  6,  1956,  ten 
are  of  the  twentieth  century.  They  give  an 
idea  of  some  of  the  important  movements 
of  modern  art.  German  impressionism, 
which  followed  the  better  known  French 
impressionism,  is  represented  by  four 
paintings: 

Hans  Thoma  (1839-1924)  is  called  a 
German  realist;  however,  his  later  works 
are  impressionistic  and  it  is  one  of  these, 
"Sunset"  of  1917,  that  has  been  given  by 
Mr.  Walter  Lowry  of  New  York.  Mr. 
Lowry  has  given  two  other  German  impres- 
sionist paintings;  a  late  painting  by  Wilhelm 
Triibner  (1851-1917)  "Schloss  Hemsbach" 
and  a  painting  of  1913,  "Landscape  with 
Village  and  Mountains,"  by  Max  Slevogt 
(1868-1932).  Max  Liebermann  (1847- 
1934),  recognized  leader  of  the  German 
impressionists  movement,  is  represented  by 
"Park  Scene,"  1911,  gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Walter  L.  Wolf,  of  New  York.  This  painting 
represents  the  turning  point  of  German 
impressionism  which  had  always  been  more 
emotional  and  symbolic  than  French  im- 
pressionism and  points  the  way  to  German 
expressionism,  of  which  the  museum  has 
yet  to  acquire  its  first  work. 

Benjamin  Kopman  (born  1887)  came  to 
America  from  Russia  at  a  very  early  age. 
As  a  painter  and  illustrator  his  work  has 
reflected  the  style  of  Chagall  and  the 
German  expressionists.  The  painting 
"Autumn  Landscape,"  gift  of  Bertram  and 
Edyth  Latham  Bloch  of  New  York,  shows 
the  influence  of  Soutine. 


Mr.  Roy  Neuberger's  gift  of  "Blue 
Landscape"  (Fig.  12)  by  Milton  Avery 
(born  1893)  is  a  welcomed  addition,  from 
the  contemporary  American  school.  In 
this  flat  patterned,  slightly  distorted  land- 
scape Avery  has  not  destroyed  the  reality 
of  the  scene  but  has  added  a  whimsical 
feeling  that  is  so  characteristic  of  his  work. 

"Seated  Figure"  by  Robert  Goodnough 
will  be  added  to  the  contemporary  Ameri- 
can section  of  the  museum  after  it  is  intro- 
duced in  the  exhibition  "Panel's  Choice" 
to  be  held  in  the  North  Carolina  Museum 
of  Art  April  2-24,  1957.  The  painting, 
a  gift  of  Mr.  James  I.  Merrill,  New  York, 
represents  one  of  the  latest  developments 
in  American  art. 

"Painting  No.  10"  by  George  Bireline, 
"Provincetown  Memories"  by  Edith  Lon- 
don, and  "Regional  Landscape  No.  5" 
by  Grove  Robinson  were  acquired  by  the 
museum  from  the  1956  North  Carolina 
Artists'  Exhibition.  Since  1946  thirty  works 
have  been  added  to  the  museum's  col- 
lection of  North  Carolina  art  through  the 
annual  purchase  awards  provided  by  the 
North  Carolina  State  Art  Society. 

It  would  be  presumptuous  to  make 
complete  judgment  on  any  contemporary 
period  or  style  of  art,  yet,  if  the  museum 
is  to  be  a  vital  factor  in  the  life  of  the 
community,  it  must  establish  criteria  for 
its  selection  of  modern  works.  A  collection 
of  modern  art  requires  even  more  connois- 
seurship  in  its  assemblage  than  that  of 
older  art,  for  the  "natural  selection"  which 
time  offers  is  not  present.  The  presage  of 
the  acceptance  of  modern  art  is  with  those 


22 


whose  discriminating  eyes  select  the  works 
to  be  shown  in  the  museum. 

Those  who  selected  the  initial  collection 
of  paintings  which  opened  in  the  North 
North  Carolina  Museum  last  April  have 
set  high  standards  which  should  be  observed 


in  all  collections.  There  are  basic  elements 
common  to  art  of  all  periods,  and  it  is 
hoped  that  the  collection  of  modern  art 
which  is  now  in  its  beginning  stages  will 
develop  along  the  same  lines  of  quality 
as  those  collections  of  older  art. 


23 


REGISTRAR'S  REPORT  OF  NEW  ACQUISITIONS 
April  6,  1956  to  February  6,  1957 


American  Paintings 

Benjamin  Kopman  (born  1887), 
"Autumn  Landscape. "  Gift  of  Bertram 
and  Edyth  Latham  Bloch,  New  York 
(G. 56. 21.1).  Canvas,  h:26,  w:36  inches. 
Signed. 

Unknown  American,  about  1840,  "Por- 
trait of  Anne  Taylor  Busbee."  Anonymous 
gift  (G.56.29.1).  Panel,  h:30,  w:25}/2  inches. 

Thomas  Sully  (1783-1872),  "The  Sully 
Children."  Gift  of  Mrs.  O.  Max  Gardner, 
Shelby  (GL.56.25.1,  former  loan).  Canvas, 
h:5534.  w:39  inches.  Coll.:  Mrs. 
Charles  A.  Klink,  Germantown,  Pennsyl- 
vania, from  1872;  Mr.  Douglas  Klink, 
Philadelphia.  Lit.:  Diary  of  Thomas  Sully, 
cat.  no.  1623;  E.  Biddle  and  M.  Fielding, 
Thomas  Sully,  Philadelphia,  1921,  p.  292. 

Milton  Avery  (born  1893),  "Blue  Land- 
scape." Gift  of  Mr.  Roy  Neuberger,  New 
York  (G. 57. 1.1).  Canvas,  h:34,  w:53  inches. 
Signed  and  dated  1946.  Exhib.:  California 
Palace  of  the  Legion  of  Honor,  1948. 

Robert  Goodnough,  "Seated  Figure." 
Gift  of  Mr.  James  I.  Merrill,  New  York 
(G. 57. 3.1).  Canvas,  h:48>i  w:48  inches. 

George  Bireline  (contemporary),  "Paint- 
ing No.  10."  Purchase  award,  North 
Carolina  Artists'  Annual  Competition 
(56.28.3).  Canvas,  h:48,  w:48  inches. 

Edith  London  (contemporary),  "Pro- 
vincetown  Memories."  Purchase  award, 
North  Carolina  Artists'  Annual  Compe- 
tition (56.28.1).  Canvas,  h:2334,  w:30 
inches. 

Grove  Robinson  (contemporary),  "Re- 
gional Landscape  No.  5."  Purchase  award, 


North  Carolina  Artists'  Annual  Compe- 
tition (56.28.2).  Casein  on  panel,  h:19, 
w:48  inches. 

European  Paintings 

Hans  Thoma  (German,  1839-1924), 
"Sunset."  Gift  of  Mr.  Walter  Lowry,  New 
York  (G. 56. 10.1).  Canvas,  h:31  Y2,  w:39^ 
inches.  Signed  and  dated  1917. 

Wilhelm  Triibner  (German,  1851-1917), 
"Schloss  Hemsbach."  Gift  of  Mr.  Walter 
Lowry,  New  York  (G. 56. 10. 2).  Canvas, 
h:243^,  w:31 3^  inches.  Signed. 

Max  Slevogt  (German,  1868-1932), 
"Landscape  With  Village  and  Mountains." 
Gift  of  Mr.  Walter  Lowry,  New  York 
(G. 56. 10.3).  Canvas,  h:23^9,  w:31  Y?  inches. 
Signed  and  dated  1913. 

Antoine  Vestier  (French,  1740-1824), 
"Mile.  Baillot."  Gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Reuben  B.  Robertson,  Asheville  (G. 56. 9.1). 
Canvas,  h:36}9,  w:29  inches.  Coll.: 
Baron  E.  de  Beurnonville,  Paris;  private 
American  collector. 

Francisco  Jose  de  Goya  y  Lucientes 
(Spanish,  1746-1828),  "The  Topers." 
Painted  in  1819.  Gift  of  the  Mary  Reynolds 
Babcock  Foundation,  Reynolda  (G. 56. 13.1). 
Canvas,  h:39%,  w:31  x/i  inches.  Inscribed 
above  center:  MEDIC[0].  Coll.:  Dr. 
Arrieta  (?);  the  Duke  of  Osuna,  Madrid; 
M.  Marczell  de  Nemes,  Budapest;  Baron 
Mdr  Lipdt  Herzog,  Budapest;  Baron  Andre 
Herzog,  Budapest.  Exhib.:  Museum  der 
Schonen  Kiinste,  Budapest,  before  1911; 
Alte  Pinakothek,  Munich,  1911  (cat.  5); 
Stadt.  Kunsthalle,  Dusseldorf,  1912  (cat. 


24 


78);  Baltimore  Museum  of  Art,  1954  (cat. 
86).  Lit.:  Ignacio  de  Beryes,  La  vida  y  los 
cuadros  de  Goya,  Barcelona  [n.  d.];  Albert  F. 
Calvert,  Goya,  An  Account  of  His  Life  and 
Works,  London,  1908,  plate  237;  Gabriel 
von  Terey,  "Die  Sammlung  Marczell  von 
Nemes  in  Budapest,"  h'unst  und  Kunstler, 
IX,  220,  221;  Gabriel  Mourey,  "La  Col- 
lection Marczell  de  Nemes,"  Les  arts,  XII, 
14,  20;  A.  de  Beruete  y  Moret,  Goya 
composiciones  y  fiquras,  Madrid,  1917,  II,  166, 
no.  173;  August  L.  Mayer,  Francisco  de  Goya, 
London,  1924,  p.  160,  plate  256,  p.  182, 
no.  673;  X.  Desparmet  Fitz-Gerald, 
Voeuvre  peint  de  Goya,  Paris,  1928-50,  II, 
274;  Emiliano  M.  Aguilera,  La  vida  y  los 
cuadros  de  Goya,  Barcelona,  1952,  plate  68. 

Giovanni  Battista  Tiepolo  (Italian,  1696- 
1770),  "The  Banquet  of  Cleopatra."  Gift 
of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  W.  Lunsford  Long, 
Warrenton  (G. 56. 15.1).  Canvas,  h:32,  w:51 
inches.  Coll.:  Prince  Leuchtenberg, 
Munich;  Axel  Beskow,  Stockholm  and  Los 
Angeles.  Exhib.:  Portland,  Oregon,  1936, 
cat.  16. 

Ferdinand  Bol  (Dutch,  1616-1680),  "The 
Sacrifice  of  Manoah."  Gift  of  Mr.  Robert 
Badenhop, Newark,  Newjersey  (G. 56. 20.1). 
Panel,  h:28,  w:2132  inches.  Exhib.: 
"Rembrandt  and  His  Pupils,"  The  North 
Carolina  Museum  of  Art,  1956,  cat.  5. 

1  Jacopo  Robusti,  called  Tintoretto 
(Italian,  1518-1594),  "The  Forge  of  Vul- 
can." About  1545-48.  Lent  by  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  W.  Lunsford  Long,  Warrenton. 
(L.56.15.2).  Canvas,  h:30^,  w:52^  inches. 
Coll.:  Friedlander-Fuld,  to  1919;  S.  Ogdan 
Steinhardt,  Paris.  Exhib.:  Kaiser-Friedrich- 
Museums-Verein,  Berlin,  Akademie  der 
Kiinst,  1925  (cat.  397). 

1  Only  long-term  loans  are  listed. 


Henry  Fuseli  (English,  1741-1825),  "The 
Three  Weird  Sisters."  1783.  Gift  of  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Peter  P.  Williams,  Raleigh 
(G.56.34.1).  Canvas,  h:l 9 w:24  1  2  inches. 
Coll.:  Dr.  Alfred  Ruetenberg,  Ruechlikon 
(near  Zurich).  Exhib.:  Royal  Academy, 
London,  1783,  cat.  10.  Engr.:  John  Raphael 
Smith,  1785  (mezzotint) ;  J.  H.  Lips,  1807; 
E.  H.  Mitchell,  1873  (lithograph).  Lit.: 
Thieme  Becker  Lexikon,  XII,  567; 
J.  Frankan,  John  Raphael  Smith,  no.  371, 
p.  240. 

Jan  Cossiers  (Flemish,  1600-1671)  [attrib- 
uted to],  "Gypsy  Subject."  Gift  of  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  James  Payne  Beckwith,  Warren- 
ton, in  memory  of  Blanche  Caldwell 
Beckwith  (G.56.35.1).  Canvas,  h:23^, 
w:29  inches. 

Max  Liebermann  (German,  1847-1934), 
"Park  Scene."  Gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Walter  L.  Wolf,  New  York  (G.57.7.1). 
Canvas,  h:21,  w:293^  inches.  Signed  and 
dated  '11. 

1  Theodor  Rombouts  (Flemish,  1597- 
1637),  "The  Backgammon  Players."  Lent 
by  the  John  Flanagan  Buggy  Company, 
Greenville,  in  memory  of  E.  G.  Flanagan 
(L. 57. 2.1).  Canvas,  h:65  w:9412  inches. 
Signed  and  dated  1634.  Coll.:  Private 
collection,  Cologne.  Lit.:  A.  von  Schneider, 
Caravaggio  und  die  Niederldnder.  1933,  p.  109 
and  plate  446. 

1  Anthony  van  Dyck  (Flemish,  1599- 
1641),  "Madonna  and  Child  with  Five 
Saints."  Painted  1618-21.  Lent  by  J.  B. 
Ivey  and  Company,  Charlotte,  in  honor 
of  J.  B.  Ivey  (L. 56. 36.1).  Panel,  h:44!2, 
w:373^2  inches.  Coll.:  Mrs.  Dickinson, 
New  York;  Mr.  R.  Dispeker,  Los  Angeles. 
Lit.:  G.  Gliick,  Klassiker  der  Kunst,  1931, 
p.  61;  L.  van  Puyvelde,  Van  Dyck,  1950, 
p.  128. 


25 


'John  Constable  (English,  1776-1837), 
"The  Old  Mill  at  Suffolk  (Near  Col- 
chester)." Lent  by  Mr.  Ernest  V.  Horvath, 
New  York  (L.  57. 4.1.).  Panel,  h:ll%, 
w:10J4  inches.  Coll.:  James  Orrock;  A.  T. 
Hollingsworth.  Exhib.:  Grosvenor  Gallery, 
1888;  Winter  Exhibition  (New  Gallery), 
1897-98.  Lit.:  A.  Graves,  A  Century  of  Loan 
Exhibitions,  7813-7912,  I,  197,  no.  68,  and 
IV,  1842,  no.  193. 

Antonis  Mor,  called  Antonio  Moro 
(Dutch,  1519-1576),  "Portrait  of  a  Man." 
Gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Ralph  C.  Price,  Greens- 
boro (G. 55. 4.1).  Panel,  h:48,  w:35  inches. 
Coll.:  The  Earl  of  Yarborough,  Brocklesby, 
Lincolnshire;  J.  Horace  Harding,  New  York; 
A.  F.  Philips,  Eindhoven,  Holland,  1941. 
Exhib.:  British  Institution,  London,  1850; 
Manchester,  1857;  National  Portrait  Exhi- 
bition, South  Kensington  Museum,  Lon- 
don, 1866,  and  Royal  Academy,  London, 
1875,  1903  (as  "Walter  Devereux,  Earl  of 
Essex");  London,  1924;  Burlington  House, 
London,  1927  (cat.,  Conway,  p.  94); 
California  Palace  of  The  Legion  of  Honor 
and  M.  H.  de  Young  Memorial  Museum, 
San  Francisco,  1939-40.  Lit.:  G.  F.  Waagen, 
Galleries  and  Cabinets  of  Art  in  Great  Britain, 
IV,  1857,  p.  64;  G.  F.  Waagen,  Treasures 
of  Art  in  Great  Britain,  II,  1854,  p.  87; 
Charles  Blanc,  Les  tresors  de  Fart  a  Man- 
chester, 1857,  p.  154;  W.  Burger,  Tresors 
d'art,  1857,  p.  174;  Lionel  Cust,  "Notes  on 
Pictures  in  the  Royal  Collection,  etc.," 
Burlington  Magazine,  XVIII  p.  11;  Max  J. 
Friedlander,  Die  altniederldndische  Malerei, 
XIII,   1934,  no.  405,  p.    176,   plate  76; 

H.  E.  van  Gelder  in  Kunsthistorisch  Jaarboek, 

I,  1948. 

Sculpture 
Donatello  (Italian,  1386-1466),  Madonna 
and  Child,  Polychrome  Relief  (stucco  on 
wood).  Anonymous  gift  (G.56.8.1).  H:27, 

1  Only  long-term  loans  are  listed. 


w:26  inches.  Coll.:  Stefano  Bandini,  Wer- 
ner Weisbach,  Berlin.  Lit.:  Paul  Schu- 
bring,  Donatello  (Klassiker  der  Kunst), 
Stuttgart,  1922,  p.  167. 

Bust  of  Julius  Caesar  (bronze  and  mar- 
ble). Italian,  17th  century.  Gift  of  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  H.  A.  Maconochie,  Asheville 
(G. 56. 11.1).  Height  24  H  inches. 

Relief,  Madonna  and  Child  (ivory). 
French,  about  1500.  Anonymous  gift 
(G.56.12.2).  Height  4J2  inches. 

Francois  Duquesnoy  (Flemish,  1594- 
1643),  "Sleeping  Cupid"  (marble).  Gift 
of  Lady  Marcia  Cunliffe-Owen,  New  York 
(G. 56. 23.1).  Length  22  inches.  Coll.:  Lord 
Michelham. 

Gutzon  Borglum  (American,  1867-1918), 
Cast  of  Head.  Gift  of  Mrs.  John  G.  Tyndall, 
Washington,  North  Carolina  (G. 56. 26.1). 

Hercules  (marble).  Roman,  2nd  century 
A.D.  Gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Jack  Linsky, 
New  York  (GL. 55. 11.2,  former  loan). 
Height  66  inches. 

Plaque  representing  Saturn  (bronze). 
Italian,  17th  century,  School  of  Bernini. 
Gift  of  Mr.  William  Wilson,  New  York 
(G. 57. 6.1).  Length  18J4  inches. 

St.  Catherine  (bas  relief,  marble).  Naples, 
School  of  Tino  da  Camaino,  14th  century. 
Gift  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  W.  Lunsford  Long, 
Jr.,  Raleigh  (G. 56. 33.1).  Diameter21  inches. 

1  Two  Baroque  Angels  (marble).  Prob- 
ably parts  of  an  altar.  Italian,  17th  century. 
Anonymous  loan  (L. 57. 5.1  and  .2).  Height 
42  and  43  inches.  Coll.:  Frank  Gair 
Macomber;  Museum  of  Fine  Arts,  Boston. 

St.  Magdalene  (limestone).  French,  14th 
century.  Gift  of  Mr.  Anthony  J.  Pisani, 
New  York  (G.56.32.1).  Height  43  inches. 

Francois  Duquesnoy,  (Flemish  1594- 
1643),  Two  Busts  (bronze).  "The  Virgin" 
and  "The  Young  Christ."  Gift  of  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Arthur  W.  Levy,  Jr.,  Raleigh 
(G.56.22.1    and    .2).    Height   9  inches. 


26 


Decorative  Arts  and  Others 

Three  Urns.  Etruscan,  fifth  century  B.  C. 
(G.56.11.2-.4). 

Two  Sheraton  Showcases  (G. 56. 11.5  and 
.6). 

Three  Queen  Anne  chairs  (G. 56. 11.8- 
.10). 

Spinette.  English,  18th  century 
(G.56.11.11). 

Oak  Table.  Elizabethan  (G. 56.1 1 .12). 

Five  Chairs.  Spanish,  17th  century 
(G.56.1 1.13-.17). 

Panel  with  Woodcuts.  Japanese  (G.56.- 
11.7). 

The  above  objects  gifts  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
H.  A.  Maconochie,  Asheville. 

Miniature  Representing  a  Prince  on 
Horseback.  India  (Mogul),  about  1650. 
Anonymous  gift  (G. 56. 12.1).  On  paper, 
h:16^g,  w:113/g  inches. 

Animal  and  Bird  Rug.  Indian,  17th 
century.  Gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Joseph  L. 
Eastwick,  Bridgeport,  Pennsylvania  (G.56.- 
7.1). 

Cope  (red  velvet).  Italian,  16-1 7th  cen- 
tury. Gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  H.  A.  Maco- 
nochie, Asheville  (G.56.1 1.18). 

Letter  and  Drawing  by  Thomas  Sully 
(American,  1783-1872), '^Boy  With  a  Cat." 
1849.  Anonymous  gift  (G.56. 12.3). 

Velvet  Hanging.  Genoese-Spanish,  17th 
century.  Gift  of  Mr.  George  Poland, 
Raleigh  (G.56. 24.1). 

Fan.  Spanish,  19th  century.  Gift  of  Miss 
Emily  Pollard,  Chapel  Hill  (G.56.27.1). 

1  Napoleonic  Clock  (L.56.1 1 .21). 
1  Two  Mirror  Panels.  Dutch,  17th  cen- 
tury (L.56.1 1.19  and  .20). 

The  above  objects  lent  by  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
H.  A.  Maconochie,  Asheville. 


1  Only  long-term  loans  are  listed. 


Two  Chairs.  Venetian,  18th  century 
(G.56.31.1  and  .2). 

Two  Chairs.  French,  18th  century 
(G.56. 31. 3  and  .4). 

Four  Plates.  Rhodes,  16- 17th  century 
(G.56.31.5-.8). 

The  above  objects  gifts  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Arthur  L.  Erlanger,  New  York. 

Vase.  Roman, about  100  B.C.  (G.56. 35. 2). 

Figure  (idol).  Greek,  about  600  B.C. 
(G.56. 35. 3). 

Vase.  Greek  Cypriote,  about  700  B.C. 
(G.56. 35.4). 

Two  Pitchers.  Roman,  about  100  B.C. 
(G.56. 35. 5  and  .6). 

Head.  Greek,  about  600  B.C.  (G.56. 35. 7). 

Figure.  Greek,  about  700  B.C.  (G.56.- 

35.8)  . 

Figure.  Greek,  about  400  B.C.  (G.56.- 

35.9)  . 

Three  Vases.  Greek,  about  200-400  B.C. 
(G.56. 35. 10-. 12). 

The  above  objects  (all  terra  cotta)  gifts 
of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  James  Payne  Beckwith, 
Warrenton,  in  memory  of  Blanche  Caldwell 
Beckwith. 

Two  Doors.  Venetian,  18th  century 
(unacc).  Gift  of  Mrs.  Byron  Foy,  New 
York. 

Covered  Crock.  American,  18-1 9th  cen- 
tury. Gift  of  Miss  Iola  Moore,  Raleigh 
(G.56. 30.1). 

Table.  Ligurian,  16th  century.  Anony- 
mous gift  (G. 57. 8.1). 

Books 

A  large  and  valuable  collection  of  books 
on  art  has  been  given  the  museum  library 
by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Walter  Ross  of  New  York. 
It  consists  of  many  hundreds  of  monographs 
on  artists,  general  works  on  the  art  of 


27 


various  periods  and  countries,  catalogues 
of  outstanding  collections,  sale  catalogs, 
and  valuable  sets  of  encyclopedias  and 
directories.  An  interesting  item  is  the  1806 
edition  of  Pilkington's  Dictionary  of  Painters, 
edited  by  Henry  Fuseli  (see  p.  15«).  In 


January  771  items  had  arrived,  and  this 
comprises  less  than  half  the  collection. 
This  material  is  extremely  useful  in  the 
work  carried  on  in  the  museum  and  in 
aiding  the  researcher  who  comes  from 
outside  seeking  information. 


28 


7ig.  1.  Donatello  (Italian,  1386-1466),  Madonna  and  Child.  Polychrome  stucco,  panel,  27  x  26  inches. 
Anonymous  gift. 


Fig.  3.  Anthony  van  Dyck  (Flemish,  1599-1641),  Madonna  and  Child  With  Five  Saints.  Panel, 
443^  x  37^2  inches. 

I     On  extended  loan  to  the  museum  from  J.  B.  Ivey  and  Company,  Charlotte,  North  Carolina, 
in  honor  of  J.  B.  Ivey. 


Fig.  5.  Two  Busts  by  Francois  Duquesnoy  (Flemish,  1594-1643):  The  Young  Christ  and  The  Virgin. 
Bronze,  height  9  inches. 

Gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Arthur  W.  Levy,  Jr.,  Raleigh. 


Fig.  6.  Sleeping\Cupid  (marble,  length  22  inches),  by  Frangois  Duquesnoy  (Flemish,  1594-1643). 
Gift  of  Lady  Marcia  Cunliffe-Owen,  New  York. 


Fig.  7.  Ferdinand  Bol.  (Dutch,  1616-1680),  The  Sacrifice  of  Manoah.  Panel,  28  x  2\y2  inches. 
Gift  of  Mr.  Robert  Badenhop,  Newark,  New  Jersey. 


Fig.  11.  John  Constable  (English,  1776-1837),  The  Old  Mill  at  Suffolk.  Canvas,  11%  x  10^  inches. 
On  extended  loan  to  the  museum  from  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Ernest  Horvath,  New  York. 


THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  MUSEUM  OF  ART 


Board  of  Directors  of  the  State  Art  Society 

Governor  Luther  H.  Hodges  Honorary  President 

Robert  Lee  Humber  President 

Edwin  Gill  Vice-President 

Mrs.  James  H.  Cordon  Treasurer 

Vice-Presidents  at  Large  Elected 

Mrs.  Frank  Taylor  Dr.  Clarence  Poe 

Mrs.  Jacques  Busbee  Mrs.  Isabelle  Henderson 

Mr.  John  V.  Allcott  Dr.  Clemens  Sommer 

Mr.  Egbert  L.  Davis 
Appointed  by  the  Governor  ,  ,    TT        T  „ 

Mr.  Henry  L.  Bridges 

Dr.  Sylvester  Green  Mr  Gregory  Ivy 

Mrs.  Charles  Cannon  Mrs  j  H  B  Moore 

Mr.  Ralph  C.  Price  Mrs  Elizabeth  Hamrick  Mack 

Ex  Officio 

Hon.  Luther  H.  Hodges  Governor  of  North  Carolina 

Dr.  Charles  M.  Carroll  State  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction 

Mr.  George  B.  Patton  Attorney  General 

Mrs.  C.  B.  Clegg  Fine  Arts  Chairman,  North  Carolina  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs 

Staff  of  the  Museum 

Dr.  W.  R.  Valentiner  Director 

James  B.  Byrnes  Associate  Director 

Ben  F.  Williams  Curator 

May  Davis  Hill  Librarian  and  Registrar 

William  T.  Beckwith  Budget  Officer 

Peggy  Jo  Kir  by  Secretary  to  Director 

Peggy  Noblin  Secretary 

Margaret  Burns  Sales  Desk- 
James  Long  Preparator 

Branton  L.  Olive  Head  Museum  Guard 


Information 

Hours:  Open  Tuesdays  through  Saturdays  10-5;  Sundays  2-6;  Closed  Mondays. 
Telephone:    TE-4-3611,  Ext.  7569. 

Tours:    May  be  scheduled  upon  advance  written  request. 

(Membership  in  the  North  Carolina  State  Art  Society  (until  June  30,  1957):  Annual  $2.00; 
||Contributor  $5.00;  Patron  $10.00;  Life  $100.00. 


CALENDAR 


APRIL  2  through  APRIL  24.  "PANEL'S  CHOICE."  An  exhibition  of  some  twenty- 
five  paintings  and  sculptures  by  leading  American  artists.  This  is  a  specially  assembled 
exhibition,  jointly  sponsored  by  the  museum  and  the  Woman's  College  of  the  University 
of  North  Carolina  in  Greensboro.  The  works  in  the  exhibition  represent  artists  selected 
by  Grace  Hartigan,  artist,  Thomas  Hess  of  Art  News,  and  Ibraim  Lassaw,  sculptor,  who 
will  be  members  of  a  panel  discussion  to  be  held  at  the  Woman's  College  on  March  14 
15  and  16.  The  exhibition  will  be  on  view  at  the  Woman's  College,  Greensboro,  March  8 
through  March  28  and  at  the  North  Carolina  Museum  of  Art,  April  2  through  April  24 

MAY.  To  be  announced. 

JULY  9  through  AUGUST  18.  CONTEMPORARY  BRITISH  PAINTINGS  AND 
SCULPTORS.  An  exhibition  originally  assembled  by  E.  and  A.  Silberman  Galleries  in 
New  York  in  connection  with  the  Museum  of  Modern  Art  for  the  benefit  of  the  British 
Council  Fine  Arts  Collection.  The  exhibition  will  comprise  thirty-three  works  by  such 
leading  British  artists  as  Henry  Moore,  Francis  Bacon,  Jacob  Epstein,  Graham  Suther- 
land, and  Ben  Nicholson. 

A  few  special  lectures  and  panel  discussions  are  planned. 

IN  PROSPECT.  ART  RENTAL  GALLERY.  A  two-week  exhibition  of  original  works 
of  art  by  today's  leading  artists,  which  will  be  available  for  purchase  with  a  two  month's 
rental  period.  This  will  permit  the  public  to  live  with  an  original  work  of  art  before 
considering  its  acquisition.  Rental  fees  will  range  from  $2.50  to  $17.50  for  two  months. 
A  registration  fee  of  $1.00  will  be  charged.  Sales  prices  of  the  works  will  range  from 
$25.00  to  $500.00.  Details  will  be  announced. 


THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  MUSEUM  OF  ART 

RALEIGH,  NORTH  CAROLINA 


Nonprofit  Organization 
U.  S.  POSTAGE 

PAID 

RALEIGH,  N.  C. 
Permit  No.  453 


North  Carolina  Stste  Library 
Technical  Service  Division 
Box  2rfd9 


Summer  1957 


THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  MUSEUM  OF  ART 

BULLETIN 


Volume  I 


Summer  1957 


Number  2 


CONTENTS 

A  Madonna  by  Berlinghiero  Berlinghieri   1 

By  W.  R.  Valentiner 

Allegorical  Portrait  of  Rachel  Ruysch  

By  W.  R.  Valentiner 

Representations  From  the  Old  Testament  in  the  Museum's  Collection  of  Paintings  9 

By  May  Davis  Him, 

A  Review  of  Three  Exhibitions  of  Modern  Art  in  the  Museum   16 

By  James  B.  Byrnes 

Opening  of  Four  New  Galleries  of  Early  Sculpture  and  Decorative  Arts   21 

Registrar's  Report  of  New  Acquisitions,  February  7  to  July  15,1957   24 

Illustrations  of  New  Acquisitions   27 


Cover:  Berlinghiero  Berlinghieri  (Italian,  active  Lucca,  1228-1243),  Madonna  and  Child 
Canvas  over  panel,  28^  x  1934  inches.  Anonymous  extended  loan. 


The  North  Carolina  Museum  of  Art  Bulletin  is  published  quarterly.  Copyright,  1957,  by  the  North  Carolina  Museum 
of  Art,  107  East  Morgan  Street,  Raleigh,  North  Carolina.  Subscriptions  SI. 00  a  year.  Single  copies  $.25.  Sent  free 
to  North  Carolina  State  Art  Society  members.  Four  weeks'  notice  required  for  change  of  address. 


A  MADONNA  BY  BERLINGHIERO  BERLINGHIERI 


By  W.  R.  Valentiner 


A  museum  collection  which  has  been 
assembled  with  the  intention  of  giving  to 
the  public  a  survey  of  the  art  of  European 
painting  from  the  origin  of  panel  painting 
to  our  time  should  not  fail  to  start  with  a 
representation  of  the  beginning  of  this 
art  in  the  thirteenth  century.  This  poses  a 
difficult  problem  for  a  newly  created 
museum,  as  examples  of  panel  paintings 
of  the  first  half  of  this  century,  the  height 
of  the  Romanesque  period,  are  extremely 
rare.  Thanks  to  the  generosity  of  an  anony- 
mous patron,  our  museum  is  fortunate  to 
be  able  to  add  to  its  exhibits  an  outstanding 
work  by  Berlinghiero  Berlinghieri  of  Lucca, 
whose  few  known  works  can  be  dated 
between  1228  and  1243. 

Pisa  and  Lucca,  the  first  Tuscan  cities 
to  produce  great  schools  of  sculpture  and 
painting,  were  imperial  strongholds,  well 
ahead  in  worldly  power  and  artistic  culture 
of  Florence,  which  belonged  to  the  opposite 
camp.  Frederick  II  (1200-1250),  the  great- 
est political  figure  of  the  thirteenth  century, 
from  whose  court  in  Apulia  Nicola  Pisano 
seems  to  have  come,  was  still  alive  when 
the  first  panel  paintings  in  Pisa  (by  Giunta 
Pisano)  and  in  Lucca  (by  the  Berlinghieri) 
were  created  (about  1230-50).  It  was  not 
until  the  second  half  of  this  century  that 
Florence  came  to  the  fore  with  such 
outstanding  masters  as  Coppo  di  Mar- 
covaldo  and  the  Magdalen  master. 

The  innovation  of  panel  painting,  that 
is,  of  a  type  of  painting  separated  from  the 
wall  and  becoming  an  entity  in  itself,  was 
connected  with  the  increasing  intensity  of 
religious  life  radiating  from  the  greatest 


reformer  of  the  Middle  Ages,  the  mystic 
and  poet  Francis  of  Assisi  (died  1226). 
The  Franciscans  remained  in  obedience  to 
the  Pope  as  an  order  but  created  their  own 
churches,  in  which  altarpieces  dedicated 
to  the  founder,  crucifixes,  and  Madonna 
tabernacles  soon  abounded.  Their  order 
was  also  welcomed  by  the  imperial  world 
power,  as  Frederick  II  recognized  their 
social  and  political  influence.  It  is,  there- 
fore, not  astonishing  if  we  find  the  first 
symbolic  portraits  of  Saint  Francis  appear- 
ing at  the  same  time  in  central  Italy  near 
the  realm  of  the  Pope  (Subiaco)  and  in 
Lucca  where  Bonaventura  Berlinghieri,  the 
son  of  Berlinghiero,  created  perhaps  the 
most  impressive  representation  of  the  saint 
in  a  large  altarpiece  in  Pescia  (1235). 
Earlier  panel  paintings  even  than  these 
altarpieces  are  the  Triumphal  crucifixes  of 
enormous  size  which,  sometimes  as  early 
as  the  twelfth  century  (the  earliest  known 
in  Sarzana  in  1138),  were  placed  upon  the 
beams  dividing  the  nave  from  the  choir 
in  Romanesque  churches,  and  the  smaller 
crucifixes  carried  in  processions.  The  only 
signed  work  by  the  old  Berlinghiero  is  a 
large  crucifix  of  this  type,  now  in  the 
Pinacoteca  in  Lucca.  Also  appearing  at 
about  the  same  time  are  representations 
of  the  enthroned  Madonna  enframed  by 
smaller  scenes  from  the  life  of  Christ  to 
be  placed  upon  the  altars,  or  the  Madonna 
in  half-length  holding  the  Child  in  her 
arms,  like  the  newly  acquired  painting  in 
our  museum,  whose  correct  attribution 
and  date  (1235-40)  comes  from  the  best 
connoisseur  on  this  subject,  Richard  Offher. 


The  style  of  these  early  panel  paintings 
is  still  closely  related  to  that  of  the  mural 
paintings  and  mosaics,  which  formed  the 
church  decorations  in  the  earlier  Middle 
Ages.  They  show  the  same  flatness,  in 
which  the  wall  surface  is  stressed,  their 
clear  outlines,  which  bring  out  the  forms 
for  a  distant  view,  and  their  bright  local 
colors,  which  remind  us  of  stained  glass 


Madonna  and  Child  from  Santa  Maria  del 
Popolo,  Rome.  Byzantine,  about  1200. 


1  In  panel  paintings  which  are  well  preserved,  for 
instance  in  the  crucifixion  in  the  style  of  Guido  da 
Siena  in  Yale  University  (R.  Offner,  Italian  Primitives 
at  Tale,  No.  26),  this  influence  of  stained  glass  windows 
is  especially  noticeable  in  the  kaleidoscopic  juxtaposition 
of  brilliant  scarlet,  purple,  lapis  lazuli,  and  lighter 
shades  of  the  same  colors. 

2  It  was  probably  painted  in  Byzantium  about  1200 
(see  E.  Lavagnino,  Santa  Maria  Del  Popolo,  Rome, 
1925,  p.  40)  like  the  Byzantine  enthroned  Madonna  in 
the  National  Gallery,  Washington,  and  in  the  Otto  H. 
Kahn  collection.  Hodegetria  refers  to  the  type  of  Madonna 
which  represents  the  Mother  with  the  Child  on  her 
arm  in  a  seated  position. 


windows.1  As  far  as  the  composition  is 
concerned,  the  Italian  artists  copied,  more 
or  less,  Byzantine  originals.  In  our  case  it  is 
the  Hodegetria  type.  An  example,  closely 
related  to  our  painting,  is  in  S.  Maria  del 
Popolo  in  Rome,  the  highly  venerated 
Madonna  (see  illustration)  said  to  be 
painted  by  Saint  Luke,  which  was  exported 
from  Constantinople  and  given  to  the 
church  by  the  Pope  in  1235. 2 

In  our  Madonna  (see  cover  illustration) 
the  local  colors  are  not  quite  so  strong  as 
in  the  large  crucifix  in  Lucca,  but  they  are 
clearly  enough  defined  in  separate  areas, 
the  dark  blue  mantle  of  the  Madonna,  the 
orange-brown  of  the  child,  both  beautifully 
contrasted  with  the  golden  background 
and  the  golden  hatchings  which  mark  the 
folds  of  the  mantle.  The  touches  of  light 
blue  in  the  belt  of  the  Child  and  of  cinnabar 
on  the  veil  of  the  Virgin  relieve  the  other- 
wise sombre  color  scheme  which  corre- 
sponds to  the  serious  and  sad  expression 
of  the  Madonna. 

Italian  art  like  its  poetry  began  to  develop 
its  national  characteristics  in  the  thirteenth 
century  under  great  difficulties  in  the  midst 
of  wars  and  a  chaotic  social  life.  The 
influence  of  Romanesque  art  in  sculpture 
coming  from  the  North,  and  of  Byzantine 
art  in  painting  coming  from  the  East,  was 
still  overpowering.  The  Italian  artists  had  to 
build  up  their  own  new  conception  upon 
a  highly  developed  tradition  coming  from 
other  countries.  The  art  of  sculpture  in 
Tuscany,  and  especially  in  Lucca,  is  purely 
Romanesque,  while  the  early  painting  is  a 
combination  of  Romanesque  art  with 
Byzantine  formulas.  That  Berlinghiero  came 
from  Milan  speaks  for  his  being  well 
acquainted  with  the  remarkable  Roman- 
esque art  of  Lombardy. 


Although  the  subject  and  composition 
of  our  Madonna  is  derived  from  the  Byzan- 
tine Hodegetria  type,  a  careful  study 
proves  that  line  and  color  and  the  more 
human  expression  in  the  faces  of  Madonna 
and  Child  speak  the  new  Italian  language. 
The  Child,  with  His  more  elongated  pro- 
portions, is  more  lively  in  His  movement, 
while  the  Madonna  expresses  sadness  in 
the  narrow  eyes  and  the  drooping  lips. 
As  far  as  the  clear-cut  planes  of  the  model- 
ling in  an  abstract  style  are  concerned,  it 
is,  as  an  excellent  student  (R.  Oertel) 
remarked  in  connection  with  similar  com- 
positions, as  if  a  modern  cubist  painter  had 
copied  a  Byzantine  Madonna  and  overlaid 
it  with  his  own  abstract  scheme. 

The  painting  is  rounded  at  the  top.  The 
spandrels  were  originally  filled  with  angels, 
of  which  the  one  on  the  right  is  still  fairly 
well  preserved.  It  formed  the  center  part 
of  a  triptych  of  the  type  of  the  two  slightly 
later  tabernacles  of  the  Lucchese  school 
still  preserved,  one  in  the  Stocklet  Col- 
lection in  Brussels  showing  the  Virgin  in 
half  length  with  the  Child  sitting  on  the 
Virgin's  right  arm,  the  other  representing 
the  Madonna  enthroned  in  full  length  in 
the  Frick  Library  in  New  York  (ca.  1270). 
Both  these  triptychs  have  scenes  from  the 
Passion  of  Christ  in  two  tiers  on  the  wings, 
to  which  has  been  added  on  the  outside 
in  the  Frick  triptych  the  figure  of  St. 
Francis,  showing  the  connection  with  the 
Franciscan  order.3 

The  only  Madonna  in  America  some- 

3  The  fact  that  our  painting  originally  formed  a 
triptych  like  the  two  triptychs  mentioned  above  and 
several  others,  for  instance,  the  Tabernacle  of  a  Floren- 
tine master,  Yale  Collection  No.  4  (Offner,  ca.  1270), 
raises  doubts  as  to  whether  our  painting  is  actually  as 
early  as  1235-40.  If  so,  it  would  be  the  earliest  triptych 
known  of  this  type. 


what  similar  in  type  to  ours  is  the  panel 
in  the  collection  of  Mrs.  J.  I.  Straus  in 
New  York  (reproduced  as  No.  3  in  the 
catalogue  of  the  Mostra  Giottesca,  1937, 
and  in  Garrison's  Italian  Romanesque  Panel 
Painting,  No.  96),  which  has  been  given 
either  to  Bcrlinghiero  or  to  his  son  Bona- 
ventura,  who  in  1243  executed  a  Madonna 
painting  for  an  archdeacon  at  Lucca.  The 
present  painting  (28  %  by  19  ^ i  inches) 
comes  from  an  English  collection  (K.  Dug- 
gan,  Stanford  De  Hope,  Essex)  and  was 
published  in  The  Connoisseur  (May  1953, 
page  134)  when  in  the  possession  of  Piero 
Tozzi,  New  York,  from  whom  it  has  been 
acquired.  It  was  completely  overpainted 
in  the  sixteenth  century;  after  these  later 
layers  were  carefully  removed,  it  turned 
out  to  be  in  fairly  good  condition. 

Appreciation  of  Tuscan  panel  paintings 
before  the  epoch  of  Duccio  and  Cimabue 
at  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century  is  of 
very  recent  date  and  is  undoubtedly  due 
to  their  relationship  to  modern  art.  For 
this  reason  we  believe  that  the  acquisition 
of  this  painting  will  be  of  special  interest 
to  artists  and  to  those  who  are  interested 
in  the  art  movements  of  our  time. 

Literature 

Oswald  Siren,  Toskanische  Maler  im  XIII. 
Jahrhundert,  Berlin,  1922;  R.  van  Marie, 
The  Development  of  the  Italian  Schools  of 
Painting,  I,  1923;  E.  Lavagnino,  Santa 
Maria  Del  Popolo,  Rome,  1925,  p.  40; 
Richard  Offner,  Italian  Primitives  at  Tale, 
New  Haven,  1927;  Edward  B.  Garrison, 
Italian  Romanesque  Panel  Painting,  Florence, 
1949;  R.  Oertel,  Die  Friihzeit  der  italienischen 
Maler  ei,  1953. 


3 


Constantin  Netscher  (Dutch,  1668-1723),  Rachel  Ruysch  in  Her  Studio.  Canvas,  45  x  36  inches. 
Gift  of  Armand  and  Victor  Hammer,  New  York. 


1 


ALLEGORICAL  PORTRAIT  OF  RACHEL  RUYSCH 


By  W.  R.  Valentiner 


The  Museum  owns  one  of  the  rare 
flowerpieces  by  Rachel  Ruysch  (1664-1750) 
(see  illustration)  who  has  always  had  the 
reputation  of  being  the  most  outstanding 
flower  painter  of  the  last  period  of  Dutch 
seventeenth  century  art.  It  is,  therefore,  of 
special  interest  that  an  excellent  portrait 
of  this  famous  woman  painter  (see  illustra- 
tion) could  be  added  to  the  Museum's 
collection,  thanks  to  the  generous  gift  of 
the  Hammer  brothers,  Armand  and  Victor, 
of  New  York. 

In  this  painting  we  see  on  an  easel 
standing  next  to  Rachel  Ruysch  another 
of  her  flowerpieces  which  should  be  com- 
pared with  the  one  owned  by  the  Museum. 
The  composition  is  very  similar:  upon  a 
marble  table  stands  a  vase  containing,  in 
a  diagonal  arrangement,  a  few  stems  of 
large  open  blossoms,  the  most  prominent 
being  roses  and  carnations.  These  big 
blossoms,  while  softly  modelled  and  tinted, 
are  strongly  lighted  against  a  black  back- 
ground and  come  forward  almost  in  front 
of  the  plane  of  the  spectator,  in  accordance 
with  the  baroque  tendency  toward  the  use 
of  high  relief  in  the  most  essential  sections 
of  the  composition.  In  the  concentration 
upon  a  few  large,  plastically  raised  blossoms, 
unfolded  obliquely  toward  the  upper  corner 
and  thus  breaking  up  every  symmetry,  we 
observe  the  characteristics  of  the  late 
baroque  style  in  Holland  which  leads  to 
the  completely  open,  fluttering  rhythms  of 
the  eighteenth  century  Rococo  flower 
paintings  as  represented  in  our  collection 


by  Francois  Desportes'  flowerpiece  entitled 
"An  Urn  of  Flowers  With  A  Rabbit." 

Flower  painting  passed  through  several 
stages  in  the  Netherlands  before  it  reached 
the  period  of  Rachel  Ruysch,  and,  as  we 
have  nowadays  discarded  the  idea  of 
progress,  it  would  be  a  mistake  to  call  her 
conception  the  height  of  this  art,  although 
she  undoubtedly  represents  her  epoch  at 
its  best.  The  students  and  collectors  of 
this  branch  of  art  are  at  present  more 
interested  in  the  earliest  stages  of  the 
development,  which  has  the  charm  of  all 
primitive  art.  The  first  stage  is  the  period 
around  1600  when  flower  painting  started 
in  Flanders  with  such  masters  as  Jan 
Bruegel  the  Younger  and  Roelant  Savery, 
whose  paintings  show  a  rich  conglomera- 
tion of  hundreds  of  small  flowers  combined 
with  somewhat  larger  ones  to  form  a 
pyramid-like  composition  in  a  rather  flat, 
linear  style  with  masses  of  local  colors. 
Next  follow  the  Dutch  masters  and  followers 
of  Ambrosius  Bosschaert  the  Elder,  and 
Jacob  de  Gheyn,  who — belonging  to  the 
early  baroque  period — prefer  an  open 
arrangement  of  a  few  individual  flowers 
clearly  outlined  and  strongly  colored,  fre- 
quently placed  against  a  light  background. 

While  we  believe  that  French  art  in  the 
eighteenth  century  was  influenced  in  the 
special  field  of  flower  painting  by  painters 
of  the  Low  Countries,  particularly  by 
Rachel  Ruysch,  whose  fame  had  spread  to 
the  neighboring  countries,  it  is  obvious 
that  in  the  type  of  allegorical  genre  paint- 
ings which  we  see   in  her  portrait  the 


5 


Rachel  Ruysch  (Dutch,  1664-1750).  A  Vase  of  Flowers.  Canvas,  2\%  x  18  inches.  From  the  Mu- 
seum's Purchase  Collection. 


6 


French  influence  upon  Dutch  art  is  pre- 
eminent. 

The  painting  is  a  glorification  of  the 
artist,  composed  in  the  elaborate  allegorical 
style  of  the  court  painters  in  France  at  the 
time  of  Louis  XIV.  A  cupid  flies  above  the 
head  of  the  artist  holding  a  wreath  with 
which  to  crown  her,  while  the  winged 
figure  of  Fame  ascends  toward  heaven, 
calling  the  artist's  name  with  the  trumpet 
she  is  blowing. 

The  painting  has  been  attributed  to 
Constantin  Netscher  (1668-1723),  the  son 
of  Caspar  Netscher  (1639-1684),  who  was 
a  pupil  of  Ter  Borch.  Both  Caspar  and 
Constantin  Netscher  were  painters  of  the 
Dutch  aristocracy  who,  especially  at  the 
end  of  the  great  period  of  Dutch  painting, 
liked  to  be  represented  in  allegorical  or 
mythological  costumes.  Most  likely,  our 
portrait  has  an  additional  allegorical  mean- 
ing of  wider  scope.  Not  only  is  the  art  of 
painting  represented  in  its  different  fields 
of  portraiture,  landscape,  genre,  and  still 
life,  but  also  the  art  of  sculpture  in  free 
plastic  works  and  reliefs,  and  the  art  of 
music  as  expressed  by  the  instrument  on 
the  table  and  the  violin  player  on  the 
balcony.  The  art  of  poetry  is  suggested  by 
the  romantic  oriental  figure  walking  in  the 
park,  accompanied  by  a  Negro  holding  an 
umbrella  over  him,  and  the  art  of  the 
dance  is  represented  by  the  marble  relief 
under  the  balustrade,  which  shows  dancing 
children  after  a  composition  of  Duquesnoy. 
The  goddess  protectress  of  the  arts  can 
be  seen  in  the  center  background  in  the 
statue  of  Minerva. 

That  the  combination  of  portraits  with 
an  allegory  of  more  general  meaning  was 
in  fashion  at  this  period  we  can  see  from 


the  allegory  of  painting  by  the  famous 
contemporary  of  our  artist,  Adriaen  van 
der  WerfT,  in  the  Darmstadt  Museum, 
which  is  at  the  same  time  a  portrait  of  the 
wife  of  the  Elector-Palatine  of  the  Rhine, 
whom  Rachel  Ruysch  and  Van  der  WerfT 
served  as  court  painters.  The  prince  pre- 
sented Rachel  Ruysch  with  the  medal 
which  in  our  portrait  she  wears  around  her 
neck  on  a  blue  ribbon.  He  also  paid  her  a 
considerable  salary,  in  exchange  for  which 
she  had  to  deliver  most  of  her  paintings  to 
him;  with  a  few  exceptions  which  he  gave 
to  the  Grand  Duke  of  Tuscany,  he  kept 
them  in  his  famous  collection. 

In  the  foreground  of  our  painting,  we 
observe  on  the  left  side  a  finely  painted 
still  life  of  grapes  and  peaches,  and  on  the 
right  side  a  basket  with  roses,  tulips,  and 
other  flowers,  so  similar  in  composition 
and  technique  to  the  style  of  Rachel 
Ruysch  that  it  seems  quite  possible  that 
our  artist  has  added  to  her  portrait  these 
still  lifes,  which  seem  like  an  afterthought 
to  the  composition. 

If  earthly  possessions  mean  the  height 
of  happiness,  Rachel  Ruysch  was  blessed 
beyond  belief.  She  became  so  well  known 
that  the  prices  paid  for  her  paintings 
surpassed  by  far  those  which  Rembrandt 
received  at  his  best  period  (she  received 
between  750  and  1200  guilders,  while 
Rembrandt  rarely  received  more  than  500 
guilders).  In  1708,  she  became  court 
painter  to  the  Elector-Palatine  and  stayed 
for  eight  years  in  Diisseldorf.  She  had  a 
considerable  income  from  this  position.  In 
other  ways  she  was  also  fortunate;  she  was 
married  at  an  early  age  to  an  understanding 
husband,  Jurriaen  Pool,  who  was  himself 


7 


a  painter,  and  they  had  ten  children.  And 
last  but  not  least,  after  all  these  happy 
circumstances,  she  and  her  husband  in 
1723  won  the  grand  prize  in  a  lottery 
amounting  to  60,000  guilders,  which  would 


be  about  $100,000  in  American  dollars. 
She  lived  to  be  eighty,  and  we  learn  from 
her  biographer,  Van  Gool,  that  she  did 
some  excellent  paintings,  even  to  the  end 
of  her  life. 


8 


REPRESENTATIONS  FROM  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 
IN  THE  MUSEUM'S  COLLECTION  OF  PAINTINGS 


by  May  Davis  Hill 


1.  Frans  Pourbus  the  Elder  (?),  GOD 
CREATING  THE  ANIMALS 

2.  Giovanni  Benedetto  Castiglione, 
NOAH  AND  THE  ANIMALS 

3.  Gerbrand  van  den  Eeckhout,  THE 
EXPULSION  OF  HAGAR 

4.  Bartolome  Esteban  Murillo,  ESAU 
SELLING  HIS  BIRTHRIGHT 

5.  Pedro  Orrente,  JACOB  CONJUR- 
ING LABAN'S  SHEEP 

6.  Luca  Giordano,  THE  FINDING  OF 
MOSES 

7.  Jan  Steen,  THE  WORSHIP  OF 
THE  GOLDEN  CALF 

8.  Peter  Paul  Rubens,  GIDEON  OVER- 
COMING THE  MIDIANITES 

9.  Ferdinand  Bol,  THE  SACRIFICE 
OF  MANOAH 

10.  Rembrandt  van  Rijn,  ESTHER'S 
FEAST 

Until  the  eighteenth  century  religious 
subjects  constituted  the  majority  of  storied 
paintings  in  European  art.  Before  the 
Reformation  paintings  of  the  Madonna, 
the  life  of  Christ,  and  scenes  from  the 
lives  of  saints  were  most  numerous;  since 
the  Reformation  the  practice  in  Catholic 
and  Protestant  countries  has  varied  some- 
what, inasmuch  as  the  Protestant  painters 
rarely  present  the  lives  of  the  Madonna 
and  of  saints.  In  both  parts  of  Europe, 
however,  stories  from  the  Old  Testament 
became  popular. 

The  examples  in  our  collection  are 
about  evenly  divided  between  Protestant 
and  Catholic  countries,  and  all  belong  to 
the  period  from  about  1600  to  1700.  We 


shall  give  here  a  short  resume  of  the  ten 
paintings  belonging  to  this  class,  since  the 
subjects  are  less  known  than  those  of  the 
New  Testament.  Although  the  Bible  is  the 
most  widely  read  book,  one  wonders 
whether  many  of  the  Museum's  visitors 
could  tell  offhand  what,  for  instance,  is 
represented  in  the  painting  by  Orrente, 
"Jacob  Conjuring  Laban's  Sheep"  or  in 
the  sketch  by  Rubens  representing  "Gideon 
Overcoming  the  Midianites." 

Genesis 

1.  The  Museum  has  in  its  collection  a 
charming  and  popular  painting  of  "God 
Creating  the  Animals,"  which  is  the  work 
of  a  Flemish  master  of  about  1570,  possibly 
Frans  Pourbus  the  Elder,  who,  according  to 


Frans  Pourbus  the  Elder?  (Flemish,  1545-81), 
God  Creating  the  Animals.  Panel,  51x47^. 


9 


Van  Mander,  was  one  of  the  first  to  paint 
animals  from  life.  In  medieval  fashion, 
many  episodes  from  the  creation  story 
(Genesis  1)  are  represented  in  the  same 
composition:  the  division  of  light  and  dark, 
and  the  creation  of  the  sun,  moon  and  stars; 
the  creation  of  the  sea  and  the  sea  creatures, 
with  the  whales  quite  prominent,  as  in  the 
Bible  text;  the  creation  of  the  land  animals, 
the  best  designed  among  them  being  those 
best  known  to  the  Northern  artist,  like  the 
horse,  cattle,  deer,  and  fowl,  while  the 
animals  from  foreign  countries,  the  ele- 
phants, lions,  rhinoceroses,  camels,  mon- 
keys, and  especially  those  produced  by  a 
fantastic  medieval  imagination — unicorns, 
monsters,  dragons — appear  less  convincing. 

While  the  landscape  is,  in  design  and 
color,  developed  toward  the  depth  in  the 
Renaissance  fashion,  the  whole  composition 
still  has  the  frontal  relief  style  of  the 
earlier  period. 

In  smaller  proportions  in  the  distance 
one  can  recognize  the  scenes  of  the  creation 
of  man  and  woman,  and  Adam  and  Eve 
driven  from  Paradise. 


Giovanni  Benedetto  Castiglione  (Italian,  1610- 
1665),  Noah  and  the  Animals.  Canvas,  5Q}4  x  69 
inches. 


2.  With  the  next  story,  we  are  only 
fifty  years  advanced,  and  yet  an  entirely 
new  conception  can  be  observed  in  the 
painting  by  Benedetto  Castiglione  (1610- 
1665),  the  Genoese  painter  of  the  baroque 
period.  The  interest  in  the  animal  world 
was  shared  by  the  late  Renaissance  painters 
of  North  Italy  (Genoa  and  Venice)  and  the 
North  European  artists,  and  it  was  probably 
for  this  reason  that  Castiglione  chose  the 
subject  of  Noah's  ark  (Genesis  7)  where 
he  could  show  his  knowledge  of  animals. 
Yet,  how  much  truer  to  nature  he  appears, 
corresponding  to  the  realism  of  the  Renais- 
sance, than  the  early  Flemish  master.  The 
pairs  of  animals,  like  the  deer  in  the  right 
corner,  the  monkeys  in  the  left,  the  cattle 
and  donkeys,  the  turkey  and  other  fowl, 
could  not  have  been  more  lifelike  if  painted 
in  the  nineteenth  century;  at  the  same  time 
the  artist  developed  the  forms  toward  the 
depth  and  with  plastic  values  with  an  excel- 
lent knowledge  of  Renaissance  principles. 

3.  Following  Biblical  chronology,  we 
come  to  the  story  of  Abraham  and  Hagar 


Gerbrand  van  den  Eeckhout  (Dutch,  1621- 
1674),  Expulsion  of  Hagar.  Canvas,  213^  x  27 
inches. 


10 


Bartolome  Esteban  Murillo  (Spanish,  1618- 
1682),  Esau  Selling  His  Birthright.  Canvas,  33^ 
x  41  inches. 


(Genesis  21).  It  is  one  of  the  favorite 
stories  of  the  seventeenth  century,  in  Italy 
as  well  as  in  Holland,  where  Rembrandt 
showed  so  much  interest  in  it  that  no  less 
than  one  hundred  paintings  and  drawings 
of  this  subject  have  been  counted  among 
his  and  his  pupils'  work.1  Our  painting  is 
by  a  close  pupil  and  friend  of  Rembrandt, 
Gerbrand  van  den  Eeckhout  (1621-1674), 
who  took  over  most  of  the  elements  of 
Rembrandt's  own  conception.  The  setting 
is  very  similar  to  many  of  those  painted  by 
Rembrandt  for  similar  scenes  from  the  Old 
Testament.  The  weeping  Hagar  is  seen  in 
the  center  with  the  unfortunate  boy  whose 
mockery  had  aroused  the  ire  of  Sarah 
and  caused  them  to  be  sent  away  into  the 
desert.  Abraham  spreads  his  palms  apart  in 
a  gesture  of  futility,  while  the  servants  go 
about  their  tasks  in  the  near-by  court. 

4.  Next  in  the  Biblical  sequence  comes 
the  charming  representation  by  Murillo 

'See  Richard  Hamann,  "Hagars  Abschied  bei 
Rembrandt  und  im  Rembrandt-Kreis,"  Marburger 
Jahrbuch  fur  Kunstwissenschqft,  XIII-IX,  16. 


(1618-1682)  of  "Esau  Selling  His  Birth- 
right" (Genesis  25).  In  the  foreground  the 
two  brothers  are  painted  in  the  style  most 
typical  of  Murillo's  work,  looking  much 
like  the  boys  from  the  marketplace  so 
often  used  as  models  by  this  artist.  The 
guileless  Esau  on  the  left  has  the  bowl  of 
pottage  for  which  he  gave  his  birthright. 
With  his  right  hand  upraised  he  swears 
the  oath  required  by  Jacob.  Leaning  toward 
him,  Jacob,  with  his  back  to  the  spectator 
and  his  right  index  finger  raised,  demands 
the  oath  of  his  brother.  The  shallow  space 
is  deepened  in  one  corner  (at  the  upper 
right)  to  show  a  room  where  the  dying 
Isaac  is  giving  his  blessing  to  Jacob,  who, 
urged  on  by  his  mother  Rebecca,  kneels 
as  he  deceives  his  father  into  giving  him 
his  brother's  blessing.  He  gives  his  father 
his  hands,  which  Rebecca  has  covered 
with  the  skins  of  animals  to  make  them 
resemble  those  of  Esau. 

5.  Jacob  appears  again  in  the  next 
episode  with  another  exhibition  of  his 
ability  to  drive  a  hard  bargain.  In  "Jacob 
Conjuring ,  Taban's    Sheep,"    by  Pedro 


Pedro  Orrente  (Spanish,  ca.  1570-1644),  Jacob 
Conjuring  Lab  an' s  Sheep.  Canvas,  39  x  52  inches. 


11 


Orrente  (about  1570-1644),  we  find  him 
busy  placing  spotted  and  streaked  rods 
before  the  sheep  at  the  watering  trough. 
Laban  had  promised  Jacob  all  the  spotted 
and  speckled  sheep  as  his  wages  (Genesis 
30),  and  Jacob  cunningly  placed  the 
bewitching  rods  before  the  strongest  of 
the  flock  in  order  that  they  might  bring- 
forth  speckled  young.  The  weak  cattle  he 
left  for  Laban.  In  this  way  the  strongest 
and  the  majority  of  the  cattle  went  to  the 
nephew  who  had  sought  shelter  with 
Laban,  served  him  for  twenty  years,  and 
married  his  two  daughters. 

Orrente  shows  the  scene  in  a  brooding- 
sunset  with  exaggerated  highlights  and 
shadows  reminiscent  of  the  chiaroscuro  of 
Caravaggio,  with  a  pupil  of  whom  he  is 
believed  to  have  studied.  Jacob  has  the 
appearance  of  a  Spanish  shepherd  tending 
his  flock,  just  as  in  the  Murillo  painting  he 
resembled  a  Spanish  boy  from  the  market- 
place. 

Exodus 

The  first  five  scenes,  or  half  the  entire 
number  of  incidents  from  the  Old  Teata- 
ment  represented  in  the  Museum  have  come 
from  the  eventful  Book  of  Genesis.  Now 
come  two  stories  from  Exodus:  "The 
Finding  of  Moses"  (Exodus  2)  by  Luca 
Giordano  and  Jan  Steen's  "Worship  of 
the  Golden  Calf"  (Exodus  32). 

6.  Luca  Giordano  (1632-1705),  a  Nea- 
politan, grew  up  in  the  workshop  of  his 
father,  who  was  also  a  painter.  Demands 
for  paintings  came  into  this  shop  so  fast 
that  the  son  was  given  the  nickname 
"Fa  Presto" — from  having  been  urged  to 
"do  it  fast."  As  a  result  of  this  pressure  he 
produced  a  large  oeuvre.  In  "The  Finding 
of  Moses"  Pharaoh's  daughter  is  a  diademed 


Luca    Giordano    (Italian,    1632-1705),  The 

Finding  of  Moses.  Canvas  60  x  82  inches. 


princess  gracefully  expressing  wonder  as 
her  attendants  draw  the  baby  toward  the 
shore  of  the  Nile.  In  the  background  on 
the  left  stands  the  shadowed  figure  of  the 
sister  Miriam,  with  hand  upraised,  waiting 
for  the  opportunity  to  fetch  a  nurse,  who 
will  be  the  baby's  mother.  The  landscape 
recedes  in  the  background  toward  a  brightly 
contrasting  skyline. 

7.  Jan  Steen  (1626-1679)  was  principally 
a  painter  of  genre,  but  the  Museum  is 
fortunate  in  having  one  of  his  rare  religious 
paintings.  It  is  the  "Worship  of  the  Golden 
Calf,"  painted  about  1670.  In  the  fore- 
ground the  artist  is  thought  to  have  painted 
himself  and  his  family  among  the  revellers, 
feasting  or  playing  musical  instruments 
(Steen  himself  strikes  a  triangle).  The 
metal  vessels,  melons,  and  the  rich  rug 
reflect  the  genre  for  which  he  is  famous. 
Removed  from  the  foreground  group  are 
the  column  on  which  the  calf  is  mounted 
and  a  lively  group  of  dancers  who  encircle 
it.  Aaron  stands  nearby  swinging  a  censer. 
The  right  background  shows  a  steeply 
ascending  mountain  from  which  Moses 
must  surely  soon  return,  while  on  the  left 


12 


Jan  Steen  (Dutch,  1626-1679),  Worship  of  the 
Golden  Calf.  Canvas  70  x  61  inches. 

the  landscape  gives  way  in  the  distance  to 
a  low  skyline. 

Judges 

The  first  two  books  of  the  Bible,  Genesis 
and  Exodus,  have  furnished  us  with  seven 
of  the  ten  Old  Testament  subjects  which 
are  represented  in  the  collection.  The  next 
two  subjects  come,  however,  from  an 
equally  eventful  epoch  in  Biblical  history, 
the  era  of  the  Judges. 

8.  The  first  episode  is  inscribed 
"JUDICVM  CAP  VII"  or  Judges,  Chapter 
7,  and  this  clearly  identifies  the  subject  of 
our  Rubens  sketch  as  "Gideon  Overcoming 

2  The  method  of  choosing  the  three  hundred  men  in 
the  Biblical  account  was  as  follows:  God  had  told  Gideon 
that  the  victory  would  seem  too  easy  if  his  entire  host 
participated — Israel  would  say,  "Mine  own  hand  hath 
saved  me."  Therefore,  the  fearful  and  afraid  were 
first  told  to  withdraw.  This  left  ten  thousand  of  the 
twenty-two  thousand,  and  these  were  told  to  drink  at 
the  brook.  Those  who  wasted  no  time  bowing  down  on 
their  knees  but  lapped  the  water  like  dogs  constituted 
the  three  hundred  chosen  to  defeat  the  Midianites. 


the  Midianites."  A  scene  of  turmoil,  it 
shows  a  tangle  of  men  and  horses  with  the 
tents  of  Midian's  frightened  army  on  the 
left,  the  victorious  army  of  Gideon  on  the 
right.  The  soldiers  blow  their  trumpets, 
and  one  still  holds  the  empty  pitcher  in 
which  his  lamp  had  been  concealed  until 
the  moment  of  attack.  These  circumstances 
bear  out  the  sixteenth  verse  of  Chapter  7: 

And  he  divided  the  three  hundred  men2  into 
three  companies,  and  he  put  a  trumpet  in 
every  man's  hand,  with  empty  pitchers,  and 
lamps  within  the  pitchers. 

At  the  moment  of  attack  the  trumpets 
were  to  be  blown  and  the  pitchers  broken 
to  reveal  the  lamps  inside,  thus  frightening 
the  enemy.  In  the  sky  is  the  destructive 
"cake  of  barley  bread"  which  had  appeared 
to  one  of  the  Midianites  in  a  dream,  and 
which  had  been  interpreted  as  the  sword 
of  Gideon  which  would  descend  to  destroy 
the  army  of  Midian. 

The  painting  illustrates  the  fullness  with 
which  Rubens  planned  a  composition  in 


Peter  Paul  Rubens  (Flemish,  1577-1640), 
Gideon  Overcoming  the  Midianites.  Panel,  233/2  x 
28^  inches. 


13 


Ferdinand  Bol  (Dutch,  1616-1680),  The  Sacrifice 
of  Manoah.  Panel,  28  x  21^2  inches.  Gift  of 
Mr.  Robert  Badenhop,  Newark,  New  Jersey. 


the  early  stages.  Though  a  sketch,  it  is 
thoroughly  visualized  and  carried  out  in 
every  detail.  Possibly  it  was  used  as  a 
cartoon  for  a  tapestry.  Similar  figures  of 
horsemen  have  been  used  in  other  compo- 
sitions of  Rubens,  principally  "The  Defeat 
of  Sennacherib"  in  Munich. 

9.  The  second  episode  from  the  Book  of 
Judges  is  "The  Sacrifice  of  Manoah"  by 
Ferdinand  Bol,  a  pupil  of  Rembrandt.  It 
is  the  gift  of  Mr.  Robert  Badenhop  of 
Newark,  New  Jersey,  having  first  appeared 
in  the  Museum  as  a  loan  for  the  exhibition 
"Rembrandt  and  His  Pupils"  in  November, 
1956.  The  style  of  Rembrandt's  middle 
years  (about  1640-50)  is  apparent  in  the 
devout  figures  and  in  the  background  of 


houses  and  trees  above  the  wall,  on  which 
a  peacock  is  sitting. 

The  story  tells  of  the  announcement  to 
Manoah  and  his  (unnamed)  wife  of  the 
forthcoming  birth  of  their  son,  Samson. 
The  wife  first  learned  of  this  fact  from  an 
angel,  but  Manoah  refused  to  believe  the 
news  until  the  angel,  whom  neither  recog- 
nized as  divine,  reappeared  and  repeated 
his  message.  Manoah  then  made  a  sacrifice 
to  God  and  the  angel  ascended  in  the 
flame,  thus  revealing  his  identity.  In  our 
painting  the  awe-struck  man  and  wife 
stand  frozen  as  the  angel  rises  above  the 
fire  they  have  built.  A  kid  lies  ready  for 
the  sacrifice  at  right,  while  two  onlookers 
appear  at  the  left.  Two  opposing  sets  of 
diagonals  form  a  dynamic  composition 
which  is  heightened  by  a  strong  light 
coming  from  the  left. 


Esther 

10.  The  last  of  our  group  of  representa- 
tions  from   the   Old   Testament   in  the 


Rembrandt  van  Rijn  (Dutch,  1606-1669), 
Esther's  Feast.  Canvas,  53  x  65  inches. 


14 


Museum's  collection  is  from  the  Book  of 
Esther  (Chapter  7).  It  is  Rembrandt's 
"Esther's  Feast."  The  Museum  is  par- 
ticularly fortunate  in  having  the  work, 
painted  about  1626,  which  is  probably 
Rembrandt's  first  large  painting.  It  shows 
the  interest  in  rich  textures  and  the  style 
which  Rembrandt  inherited  from  his 
teacher  Pieter  Lastman,  combined  with  the 
influence  of  the  Utrecht  followers  of  Cara- 
vaggio.  The  figure  silhouetted  against  the 
hidden  light  source  indicates  an  early 
interest  in  effects  of  this  type. 

The  painting  represents  the  moment 
when  Esther,  whose  people  are  about  to 
be  destroyed  by  Haman,  reveals  the 
treachery  of  the  prime  minister  to  her 
husband,  Ahasueras.  She  has  created  an 
opportunity  for  her  disclosure  by  preparing 
a  banquet,  to  which  she  has  invited  the 
king  and  his  minister.  Esther  points  to 
Haman,  who  recoils  at  the  revelation, 
while  Ahasueras  clinches  his  fists  in  anger. 
In  the  background  Rembrandt  has  placed 
the  chamberlain  Hatach. 

This  painting  has  been  described  in  a 
contemporary  poem  by  Jan  Vos  which  was 


thought  for  many  years  to  refer  to  the  small 
full-length  version  of  the  subject  in  Moscow, 
but  which,  as  has  been  pointed  out,  was  in 
reality  written  of  our  own  version.  It  refers 
to  the  clinched  fists  of  Ahasueras  and  to 
the  bread  on  the  table,  neither  of  which 
appears  in  the  Moscow  painting.  The 
poem,  as  translated  by  Tancred  Borenius 
in  the  Phaidon  Rembrandt  (1942),  page  26, 
follows: 

Here  one  sees   Haman  eating  with 

Ahasuerus  and  Esther, 
But  it  is  in  vain,  his  breast  is  full  of  grief 

and  pain. 

He  bites  at  Esther's  food:  but  deeper 

into  her  heart. 
The   King   is   possessed   by  revenge 

and  rage, 

The  wrath  of  a  king  is  shocking  as  it 
raves. 

Threatening  all  men,  it  is  nullified  by 
a  woman. 

So  falls  one  from  the  summit  into  the 

chasm  of  adversity. 
The  vengeance  which  comes  slow  has 

the  strongest  rods. 


15 


A  REVIEW  OF  THREE  EXHIBITIONS 
OF  MODERN  ART  IN  THE  MUSEUM 

by  James  B.  Byrnes 


In  the  first  half  of  1957,  the  Museum 
presented  three  major  exhibitions  featuring 
contemporary  painting  and  sculpture  as- 
sembled and  arranged  to  present  specific 
aspects  of  present  day  art. 

The  first  exhibition,  titled  "Panel's 
Choice,"  included  the  work  of  younger 
artists  of  the  past  decade  who  were  chosen 
by  a  group  of  three  people  active  in  the 
production  and  criticism  of  present  day  art. 

The  second  featured  inexpensive,  original 
watercolors,  drawings,  prints,  and  litho- 
graphs, together  with  small  sculptures  by 
19th  and  20th  century  artists  which  were 
available  for  purchase  after  a  trial  rental 
period.  Presented  as  an  "Art  Rental 
Gallery,"  the  project  will  continue  through- 
out the  year. 

The  third  exhibition  consisted  of  a 
selection  of  some  forty-five  paintings  and 
sculptures  on  loan  from  a  private  collector 
residing  in  Raleigh.  This  exhibition  in- 
cluded work  by  American  and  European 
modern  artists  of  the  past  sixty  years  with 
particular  emphasis  on  work  by  the  leading 
contemporaries. 

"Panel's  Choice,"  shown  April  2  through 
April  24,  was  by  far  the  most  difficult  for 
any  but  the  artist,  critic  and  student.  The 
show  was  put  together  by  a  committee, 
representing  the  Woman's  College  in 
Greensboro  and  the  Museum,  who  selected 
the  individual  works  from  a  list  of  younger 
artists  recommended  by  critic  Thomas  Hess 
of  Art  News,  Grace  Hartigan,  painter,  and 
Ibram  Lassaw,  sculptor,  all  of  New  York 


City.  These  three  experts  comprised  an 
invited  panel  who  discussed  current  Ameri- 
can painting  at  Woman's  College  where 
the  exhibition  was  shown  before  its  viewing 
here  in  Raleigh.  The  general  character  of 
the  exhibition  was  a  mixture  of  examples 
by  the  earlier  so-called  "non-objective" 
artists  —  Motherwell,  Hofmann,  Kline, 
Lassaw  and  Hare;  and  the  younger  "return 
toward  the  object"  work  of  artists  Larry 
Rivers,  Grace  Hartigan,  Felix  Pasilis, 
Robert  Goodnough,  Robert  de  Niro,  Mary 
Abbott,  Elaine  de  Kooning  and  others. 
Standing  midway  were  the  works  of  artists 
Joan  Mitchell,  Milton  Resnick,  Giorgio 
Cavallon  and  Helen  Frankenthaler;  all  of 
whom  depend  from  the  "abstract  expres- 
sionist" aesthetic  and  from  whom,  together 
with  those  of  the  older  generations,  one 
frequently  found  more  finished  canvases. 
This  is  perhaps  natural  in  view  of  their 
continuation  of  the  non-objective  idiom 
which  has  dominated  American  painting 
for  the  past  fifteen  years.  The  group  of 
painters  who  offered  more  figurative  works, 
with  the  suggestion  or  depiction  of  the 
figure  and  other  objects,  strangely  were 
regarded  as  the  more  controversial  exhibi- 
tors. Many  were  students  of  Hans  Hofmann 
and  display  his  emphasis  on  strong  color 
and  "push-pull"  line.  If  one  talks  with  an 
artist  of  this  younger  group,  he  finds  him 
struggling  against  the  established  genera- 
tion. He  criticizes  the  older  group  as  having 
started  out  toward  painting  with  an  abso- 
lute "at  ease  honesty,"  who  has  somewhere 


16 


along  the  line  become  a  sophisticate,  a 
natural-shoulder  artist,  and  the  young  rebel 
wants  to  banish  affectation,  polish  and 
posing,  and  while  some  may  regard  his 
approach  as  "neo-Hobohemianism,"  he 
patently  rejects  Russell  Lynes'  "Upper 
Bohemia."  His  is  not  an  easy  row  to  hoe; 
he  is  rejected  by  both  the  traditionalist 
and  abstract  painter;  in  grappling  with 
subject  matter,  he  places  a  special  burden 
on  his  most  critical  audience  who,  having" 
come  to  terms  with  significant  non-figura- 
tive work,  finds  that  the  slightest  hint  of  a 
representational  image  intrudes  upon  the 
purity  of  his  enjoyment.  Nevertheless,  this 
new  group  of  quasi-representational  paint- 
ers has  a  widening  audience  and  a  core  of 
critics  who  champion  its  efforts.  This  new 
group  is  by  no  means  a  "sanity  in  art" 
movement;  they  are  not  "returning  to" 
the  image  in  any  academic  sense;  they 
simply  do  not  strive  to  submerge  it,  but 
instead  encourage  its  emergence. 

One  of  the  best  artists  of  this  persuasion 
was  unfortunately  not  included  among  the 
Panel's  recommendations;  his  work  not 
being  too  familiar  to  the  New  York  area, 
at  present.  Enrique  Montenegro,  currently 
teaching  at  the  School  of  Design  here  in 
Raleigh,  is  a  well-known  painter  in  the 
Far  West,  where  he  taught  at  the  University 
of  New  Mexico  and  the  Denver  Museum, 
and  was  given  a  number  of  one-man  shows. 
Montenegro  was  identified  as  a  "non- 
objective"  painter  for  more  than  ten  years 
until  recently  when  he  began  a  series  of 
canvases  involving  deep  spaced  interiors 
with  figures.  His  most  recent  work  pro- 
duced here  in  Raleigh  is  a  series  of  richly 
painted  figure  pieces  in  which  the  subject 
and  objects  are  more  clearly  defined  than 


before,  but  the  figurative  elements  are  never 
carried  beyond  the  point  of  expressing 
their  role  in  the  larger  space  relationship 
which   is   the   artist's   total  concern. 

Montenegro's  work  is  being  featured  in 
an  exhibition  at  the  Museum  at  present, 
shortly  before  he  leaves  to  take  a  new 
position  at  the  University  of  Texas. 

The  second  exhibition,  the  "Art  Rental 
Gallery,"  was  presented  from  May  3  to 
May  15.  The  purpose  of  arranging  this 
event  was  to  bring  together  original  works 
of  art  available  for  purchase  at  prices 
attractive  to  developing  young  collectors. 
The  title  "Art  Rental  Gallery"  was  chosen 
because  such  activity  has  become  part  of 
the  more  familiar  offering  in  many  art 
museums  in  the  country.  However,  the 
"Rental"  aspect  was  somewhat  de-empha- 
sized in  the  Museum's  exhibition;  instead, 
the  idea  of  rental  was  to  provide  a  trial 
basis  for  those  not  entirely  certain  of  their 
choice.  In  selecting  the  material,  original 
works  by  nineteenth  and  twentieth  century 
masters  were  featured;  in  most  cases  these 
were  lithographs,  etchings  and  posters  by 
such  artists  as  Toulouse-Lautrec,  Picasso, 
Rouault,  Matisse,  Braque,  and  artists  of 
more  popular  appeal — Dufy,  Laurencin, 
Dali  and  others.  The  younger  generation  of 
European  artists — Marini,  Hartung,  Music, 
Clave,  Esteve,  Campigli,  Matta,  etc.,  pro- 
vided interesting  signed  examples  of  work 
which  sold  for  under  fifty  dollars.  Young 
American  artists  were  asked  to  supply  water- 
colors  and  drawings  with  prices  rarely  ex- 
ceeding $175.00  for  a  top  artist.  Typical 
comments  ran — "This  is  the  first  time  I  have 
had  a  chance  to  learn  how  inexpensive  one 
can  get  original  items  by  well-known  artists" ; 
"I've  paid  more  for  a  framed  reproduction" 


17 


Odilon  Redon  (French,  1840-1916),  Dante  and  Beatrice.  Oil  on  canvas,  19j^  x  25^  inches.  Exhib- 
ited, "A  Private  Collection  of  Modern  Art."  Anonymous  lender,  Raleigh. 


and  "It's  nice  to  see  the  Museum  providing 
a  service  usually  reserved  for  plush  private 
galleries  that  the  public  would  hesitate  to 
enter."  From  the  exhibition,  five  works 
were  sold  immediately  and  nine  were 
rented.  The  project  was  created  as  a  self- 
amortizing  activity  since  no  budget  funds 
were  available,  and  we  are  happy  to  report 
that  a  small  profit  accrued  which  will 
permit  the  Museum  to  put  on  another 
showing  in  the  fall. 

The  third  exhibition  provided  an  inter- 
esting contrast  to  the  preceeding  two  since 


it  consisted  of  works  of  art  acquired  by  a 
private  collector  over  a  period  of  forty  years. 

The  earliest  works  in  the  exhibition  were 
two  fine  canvases  by  the  poet-symboiist 
painter,  Odilon  Redon,  one  of  which, 
"Dante  and  Beatrice"  (see  illustration) 
ranks  as  one  of  this  artist's  foremost  oil 
paintings.  Following  chronologically  were 
two  outstanding  watercolors  by  Paul  Klee 
and  of  the  same  period,  an  almost  cubist- 
abstract  "Female  Figure"  by  Marcel  Gro- 
maire,  among  the  artist's  most  important 
efforts.  From  there  the  range  covers  artists 


18 


of  many  persuasions — from  two  gouaches 
by  the  mystically-romantic  master  Morris 
Graves  through  to  the  latest  works  by 
local  artists  Duncan  Stuart,  Enrique  Mon- 
tenegro and  George  Bireline.  Among  the 
sculpture  was  an  early  masterful  work,  "The 
Wrestler,"  by  Marino  Marini  (see  illustra- 
tion), dated  1935 — the  first  work  by  Marini 
to  be  acquired  in  this  country.  Small 
bronzes  by  Haller,  Georg  Kolbe  and  Henry 
Moore  and  a  delightful  welded  construction 
by  Harry  Bertoia  demonstrate  the  range  of 


Marino  Marini  (Italian  Contemporary),  The 
Fighter,  1935.  Bronze,  height  26^2  inches.  Ex- 
hibited, "A  Private  Collection  of  Modern  Art." 
Anonymous  lender,  Raleigh. 


sculpture  approach  from  the  representa- 
tional through  to  the  completely  abstract. 

The  showing  of  a  personally  selected 
private  collection  always  provides  a  very 
interesting  exhibition.  However,  it  is  rare 
to  find  such  a  collection  outside  the  large 
metropolitan  centers  and  indeed  rarer  to 
see  one  which  demonstrates  such  a  knowl- 
edgeable understanding  of  the  significant 
artists  in  one's  own  lifetime.  It  is  no  trick 
to  buy  such  artists  as  Klee,  Miro,  Gromaire 
and  the  later  day  comers  to  prominence — 
the  German  expressionists,  Kirchner, 
Schmidt-Rottluff,  Kokoschka,  and  Nolde, 
but  to  have  acquired  them  when  they  were 
relatively  unknown  and  certainly  not  mar- 
ketable, testifies  to  an  active  participating 
interest  in  the  creative  structure  of  our 
time.  To  be  able  to  present  such  an  exhi- 
bition so  early  in  this  Museum's  history 
points  up  our  own  obligation  to  exhibit  and 
acquire  the  work  of  significant  present  day 
artists  and  not  to  wait  until  they  have 
passed  on  in  life  and  into  history  and  of 
course  into  the  higher  priced  plane  of  the 
art  market. 

To  follow  out  the  program  mentioned 
above,  the  three  exhibitions  held  brought 
to  the  attention  of  the  public  the  work  of 
leading  artists  of  our  time.  In  addition, 
the  Museum  was  fortunate  in  obtaining  a 
few  paintings  by  artists  shown  in  them 
through  the  generosity  of  private  individu- 
als. The  Museum  expresses  sincere  thanks 
to  Mr.  James  I.  Merrill  of  New  York  City, 
who  presented  "Interior  with  Mexican 
Doll"  by  Grace  Hartigan,  "Palm  Frond" 
by  Felix  Pasilis,  and  "Seated  Figure"  by 
Robert  Goodnough;  all  artists  whose  works 
were  shown  in  the  "Panel's  Choice" 
exhibition.  From  the  selections  made  for 
the  Art  Rental  Gallery,  the  Museum  was 


19 


pleased  to  receive  "Some  People  at  the 
Beach"  by  Robert  Andrew  Parker  as  a 
gift  from  Mrs.  Barbara  Wescott  of  Clinton, 
New  Jersey.  This  writer  would  like  per- 
sonally to  thank  the  artists  and  donors 
who  helped  make  these  exhibitions  and 
gifts  possible. 

Another  gift  by  a  living  artist  was  pre- 
sented by  the  Erwin-Lambeth  Furniture 
Company   of  Thomasville,    N    C. — four 


wall  panels  painted  by  Richards  Ruben  of 
Los  Angeles  for  a  contemporary  room 
interior  designed  by  Erwin-Lambeth.  The 
panels  were  shown  in  the  Chicago  Art 
Mart,  at  the  Pasadena  Museum  of  Art,  and 
the  San  Francisco  Museum  of  Art. 

It  is  hoped  that  other  works  by  today's 
artists  will  be  acquired  for  the  projected 
gallery  of  contemporary  art  which  will 
open  some  time  this  fall. 


20 


OPENING  OF  FOUR  NEW  GALLERIES  OF  EARLY  SCULPTURE 
AND  DECORATIVE  ARTS 


A  new  series  of  galleries  was  opened  in 
the  Museum  on  Sunday,  July  21 ,  containing 
early  sculpture  and  decorative  arts.  Thus 
far,  the  Museum  collection  consisted  almost 
exclusively  of  paintings  representing  the 
periods  from  the  fifteenth  century  to  our 
own  epoch.  As  an  educational  institution 
destined  to  teach  the  complete  art  history 
of  the  world,  the  Museum  should  also 
necessarily  contain  objects  illustrating  the 
earliest  epochs,  from  prehistoric  times  until 
the  fifteenth  century,  epochs  in  which  the 
art  of  painting  was  less  prominent  than 
that  of  sculpture  and  decorative  arts. 

It  will  take  some  time  before  it  will  be 
possible  to  represent  the  art  of  the  countries 
where  art  was  first  created,  that  is,  Meso- 
potamia, China,  and  Egypt,  from  the  fourth 
and  third  millennium  before  Christ.  But 
thanks  to  the  generous  help  of  Dr.  and 
Mrs.  Fred  Olsen  a  beginning  could  be  made 
with  a  small  collection  of  Egyptian  and 
Greek  art. 

The  earliest  piece  is  a  fragmentary  relief 
of  exquisite  design  of  the  Tell  'Amarna 
period  (1377-1358  B.C.)  slightly  colored 
in  the  faces  and  representing  as  the  main 
motif  a  girl  playing  a  harp.  A  series  of 
canopic  jars  and  a  few  small  granite  and 
bronze  figures  as  well  as  a  painted  mummy 
cloth  belong  to  the  Saite  period  (600-300 
B.C.);  a  realistic  portrait  head  of  a  woman 
with  dark  eyes  made  of  shell  comes  from 
the  Roman  period  in  Egypt.  Outstanding 
is  the  collection  of  about  twenty-one  pieces 
of  textiles  and  stone  fragments  of  the  Copts. 
These  Christians  living  in  Egypt  developed 
with  a  high  degree  of  technical  skill  the 


earliest  known  tapestry  weavings  with 
designs  based  partly  upon  Roman  and 
partly  upon  Oriental  motifs  belonging 
mostly  to  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries  A.D. 
This  beginning  of  a  textile  collection  is  of 
special  importance  for  North  Carolina 
with  its  highly  developed  textile  industry. 

While  these  objects  are  displayed  in  the 
corridor  of  the  third  floor,  the  first  of  the 
small  galleries  on  this  floor  is  devoted  to 
Greek  and  Roman  art  from  the  sixth  and 
fifth  centuries  B.C.  to  the  third  century 

A.  D.  Only  one  large  marble  statue  repre- 
senting Hercules,  in  a  dramatic  pose, 
obviously  a  Roman  copy  after  a  Hellenistic 
original,  represents  the  highest  art  of  the 
classical  period.  The  sculpture  in  marble 
is  a  gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Jack  Linsky  of 
New  York.  The  art  of  vase  painting  can 
be  traced  from  the  earliest  types  with  simple 
geometric  design  to  the  archaic  forms  of 
the  Corinthian  style  of  the  sixth  century 

B.  C.  showing  friezes  with  Oriental  animals, 
from  the  black-figured  types  of  the  fifth 
century  to  the  red-figured  ones  of  the  fourth 
and  third  centuries  B.C.  This  development 
is  paralleled  by  that  of  the  clay  figurines 
of  which  we  can  show  a  collection  of  about 
seventeen  pieces,  mostly  of  the  fifth  and 
fourth  centuries  B.C.,  especially  impressive 
being  the  early  abstract  forms  of  goddesses 
and  Kore,  and  the  enchanting  Tanagra 
figurines  of  the  fourth  century  and  later. 

The  next  gallery  contains  the  excellent 
collection  of  ancient  glass  of  Egyptian, 
Roman,  and  Syrian  workmanship,  from 
the  third  century  B.C.  to  the  third  century 
A.D.,  given  to  the  Museum  by  the  late 


21 


Mrs.  Katherine  Pendleton  Arrington,  presi- 
dent for  many  years  of  the  North  Carolina 
State  Art  Society.  In  this  gallery  are  also 
exhibited  four  Gandhara  reliefs  presented 
by  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Fred  Olsen  representing 
the  same  motif  of  Buddha  and  his  disciples 
in  different  variations.  This  art  of  the 
first  and  second  centuries  A.D.  is  thought 
to  have  its  origin  in  the  Hellenistic  period 
of  the  time  when  Alexander  the  Great 
conquered  India. 

The  third  gallery  is  devoted  to  medieval 
art  and  contains  thus  far  only  a  small 
number  of  sculptures  and  one  painting  as 
a  centerpiece,  one  of  the  few  earliest 
examples  of  Italian  painting  in  America, 
a  work  by  Berlinghiero  Berlinghieri  of 
Lucca  (see  article,  page  1).  There  are 
also  three  pieces  representing  the  great 
art  of  French  Gothic  sculpture,  one  a 
capital  of  the  fourteenth  century  with  the 
fantastic  forms  of  a  bearded  man,  a  woman, 
and  a  lion's  head  between  Gothic  leaves 
in  high  relief.  The  two  other  pieces  belong- 
ing to  the  early  and  the  late  fifteenth 
century  represent  Saint  Mary  Magdalene 
in  two  very  different  conceptions.  One 
shows  the  Magdalene  as  the  mourning 
Mary  at  Christ's  tomb  holding  the  vase  of 
ointment,  while  the  other  represents  the 
saint  praying  and  covered  from  head  to 
foot  with  her  hair  which  grew  in  one  night 
as  a  protection  when  she  was  praying  in 
the  desert.  Italian  Gothic  art  is  represented 
with  only  one  marble  relief  from  Naples 
representing  Saint  Catherine  executed  by 
a  follower  of  Tino  da  Camaino  and  showing 
the  influence  of  French  sculpture  of  the 
Anjou  period  in  Italy,  a  gift  of  Dr.  and 
Mrs.  W.  Lunsford  Long,  Jr.,  of  Raleigh. 

The  last  gallery  is  devoted  to  one  of 


the  greatest  epochs  of  sculpture,  that  of 
the  Italian  Renaissance  and  Baroque, 
fifteenth  to  the  seventeenth  centuries.  Not 
more  than  ten  sculptures  are  exhibited  to 
give  an  idea  of  this  productive  epoch.  To 
the  fifteenth  century  belongs  the  relief  of  the 
Madonna  by  Donatello  from  the  Werner 
Weisbach  collection  in  painted  stucco, 
a  composition  otherwise  not  known,  char- 
acteristic in  the  tragic  mood  of  the  Virgin 
contrasted  with  the  playful  attitude  of  the 
Child,  executed  in  the  clear-cut,  flat  relief 
style  of  his  late  period  (reproduced  in 
Bulletin  No.  1).  A  charming  marble  relief 
of  the  Madonna  from  the  Preston  P. 
Satterwhite  collection  in  New  York  has 
always  been  known  under  the  name  of 
Antonio  Federighi,  the  most  outstanding 
follower  of  Donatello  in  Siena.  The  third 
relief  of  the  early  Renaissance  is  a  portrait 
of  Duke  Federigo  of  Urbino  in  marble,  the 
well-known  art  patron  painted  in  a  similar 
profile  view  by  Piero  della  Francesca.  It 
is  most  probably  executed  by  Francesco 
Laurana,  who  worked  in  Urbino  and  is 
known  for  his  great  portrait  busts  of  women 
of  the  Renaissance. 

Several  bronze  statuettes  belong  to  the 
sixteenth  century,  the  "Bird  Catcher"  by 
Giovanni  da  Bologna,  the  best  bronze 
sculptor  of  this  period;  a  small  statuette  of 
Hercules  by  Francesco  da  San  Gallo;  and 
an  excellent  model  of  a  Neptune  which 
can  be  attributed  to  Benvenuto  Cellini. 
To  the  time  of  Lorenzo  Bernini,  the  seven- 
teenth century,  belong  the  gilded  bronze 
of  Saturn  and  three  works  by  Frangois 
Duquesnoy,  who  rivaled  Bernini  in  Rome 
and  was  the  most  celebrated  Flemish 
sculptor  in  Italy.  By  him  are  the  two  bronze 
busts  of  Christ  and  the  Virgin,  a  gift  of  Mr. 


22. 


and  Mrs.  Arthur  W.  Levy  of  Raleigh,  and 
the  "Sleeping  Cupid"  in  marble,  a  gift  of 
Lady  Marcia  Cunliffe-Owen  of  New 
York,  (all  illustrated  in  the  last  issue). 
To  the  same  period  belong  the  two  life- 
size  marble  cupids  exhibited  on  the  first 
floor  in  connection  with  the  paintings  of 


Rubens  and  his  school  (also  reproduced  in 
the  last  issue).  They  will  be  described  in 
the  next  number  of  the  Bulletin,  together 
with  a  study  devoted  to  the  statuettes  by 
Benvenuto  Cellini  and  Francesco  da  San 
Gallo. 

W.  R.  V. 


23 


REGISTRAR'S  REPORT  OF  NEW  ACQUISITIONS 
February  7  to  July  15,  1957 


American  Paintings 

Robert  Andrew  Parker  (born  1928), 
"Some  People  at  the  Beach"  (water  color). 
Gift  of  Mrs.  Barbara  Wescott,  Clinton, 
New  Jersey  (G.57.13.1).  Paper,  h:21M, 
w:31  inches.  Signed. 

Felix  Pasilis  (born  1922),  "Palm  Frond." 
Gift  of  Mr.  James  I.  Merrill,  New  York 
(G.57.3.2).  Canvas,  h:43,  w51:  inches. 
Exhibited:  Panel's  Choice  1957,  North 
Carolina  Museum  of  Art  (cat.  15). 

Grace  Hartigan  (born  1922),  "Interior 
With  Mexican  Doll."  Gift  of  Mr.  James  I. 
Merrill,  New  York  (G.57.3.3).  Canvas, 
h:80}2,  w:58}2  inches. 

Richards  Ruben  (born  1925),  four 
paintings  for  wall  decorations.  Gift  of 
Erwin-Lambeth,  Inc.,  Thomasville,  North 
Carolina  (G. 57. 15.1  to  .4).  Tempera  on 
cloth,  h:96}2  inches,  total  width:  365 3^ 
inches.  Exhibited:  Chicago  Art  Mart; 
Pasadena  Museum  of  Art;  San  Francisco 
Museum  of  Art. 

European  Paintings 

Constantin  Netscher  (Dutch,  1668-1723), 
"Rachel  Ruysch  in  Her  Studio."  Gift  of 
Armand  and  Victor  Hammer,  New  York 
(G.57.10.1).  Canvas,  h:45,  w:36  inches. 
Coll.:  Rt.  Hon.  Lewis  Fry,  Bristol;  Comte 
de  Ganay,  Paris.  Lit.:  Burlington  Magazine 
December,  1952,  Plate  XIX. 

Marco  Ricci  (Italian,  1676-1729), 
"Shepherd  and  Shepherdess  Near  Roman 
Ruins"  (grisaille).  Companion  piece  to  the 

*  Only  long-term  loans  are  listed. 


following.  Gift  of  Oscar  and  Jan  Klein, 
New  York  (G.57.5.1).  Oil  on  cardboard, 

h :8 3^2,  w:6^  inches. 

Marco  Ricci  (Italian,  1676-1729),  "Girl 
at  Well  With  Roman  Ruins"  (grisaille). 
Companion  piece  to  the  above.  Gift  of 
Oscar  and  Jan  Klein,  New  York  (G.57.5.2). 
Oil  on  cardboard,  h:83^,  w:6M  inches. 

Berlinghiero  Berlinghieri  (Italian,  active 
in  Lucca,  1228-1243),  "Madonna  and 
Child."  Painted  about  1235-1240.  Anony- 
mous loan  (L. 57. 16.1).*  Canvas  over  panel, 
h:28%,  w:19M  inches.  Coll.:  K.  Duggan, 
Stanford  de  Hope,  Essex,  England.  Lit.: 
The  Connoisseur,  May  1953,  p.  134. 

Sculpture 

St.  Sebastian.  South  German,  about 
1750.  Gift  of  Mrs.  Betty  Mont,  New  York 
(G. 56. 37.1).  Boxwood,  h:13  inches. 

Madonna  and  Child,  Lower  Rhenish, 
about  1500.  Gift  of  Dr.  Frederick  Mont, 
New  York  (G.56.38.1).  Boxwood,  h:83^ 
inches. 

Head  of  a  Goddess.  Greek  (School  of 
Praxiteles),  4th  century  B.C.  Gift  of  Mr. 
Nicholas  M.  Acquavella,  New  York 
(G. 57. 18.1).  Marble,  h:9%  inches. 


St.  Mary  Magdalene.  French  (He  de 
France),  about  1500  (G.57.14.15).  Sand- 
stone, h:59  inches.  Coll.:  Dikran  Kelekian, 
Paris. 

Gothic  Capital.  French,  14th  century 
(G. 57. 14. 16).    Limestone,    h:10}i  inches. 


24 


Buddha  With  Two  Disciples.  Indian 
Hellenistic  (Gandhara),  1st  to  2nd  century 
A.D.  (G.57.14.40).  Bas  relief  in  stone,  h:8>i 
w:8^2  inches. 

Avalokitesvara,  Lord  of  Mercy.  Indian 
Hellenistic  (Gandhara),  1st  to  2nd  century 
A.D.  (G.57.14.41).  Bas  relief  in  stone,  h:5, 
w:25  inches. 

Buddha  With  Two  Disciples.  Indian 
Hellenistic  (Gandhara),  1st  to  2nd  century 
A.D.  (G. 57. 14.42).  Bas  relief  in  stone, 
h:12,  w:12  inches. 

Collection  of  thirteen  Greek  and  Roman 
figurines  and  heads,  6th  century  B.C.  to 
2nd  century  A.D.  (G. 57.14.26  to  .38). 
Terra  cotta  and  stone. 

The  above  items  gifts  of  Dr.  and  Mrs. 
Fred  Olsen,  Guilford,  Connecticut. 


Buddha  on  Horseback.  Indian  Hellen- 
istic (Gandhara),  1st  to  2nd  century  A.D. 
(G.57.14.44).  Bas  relief  in  stone,  h:10, 
w:  10 3^2  inches. 

Collection  of  45  Egyptian,  Greek, 
Roman,  Coptic,  and  other  small  sculptures 
in  terra  cotta,  stone,  bronze,  and  other 
materials.  About  600  B.C.  to  500  A.D. 
(L.57. 14.45  to  .69;  .72,  .74  to  .76;  .79  to 
.88;  .91,  .92,  .94,  .96  to  .98). 

The  above  items  lent  by  Dr.  and  Mrs. 
Fred  Olsen,  Guilford,  Connecticut.* 


Benvenuto  Cellini  (Italian,  1500-1571), 
Neptune.  Probably  the  model  for  the 
fountain  in  the  Piazza  della  Signoria, 
Florence.  Anonymous  loan  (L.57. 1 1 .2). * 
Bronze,  h:93^2  inches. 

*  Only  long-term  loans  are  listed. 


Decorative  Arts  and  Others 

Rug  (Kilim).  Turkish,  2nd  half  of  18th 
century.  Gift  of  Dr.  Nell  Hirschberg, 
Raleigh  (G.57.19.1).  Wool,  h:70,  w:53 
inches. 

Linen  runner.  Spanish,  19th  century. 
Gift  of  Mr.  George  Poland,  Raleigh 
(G.57.9.1).  Linen,  length  85,  width  24 
inches. 

Altar  set.  Spanish,  19th  century.  Gift  of 
Mr.  George  Poland,  Raleigh  (G.57.9.2  a-c). 
Linen;  a:  length  101,  width  70  inches; 
b  and  c:  length  27  }  2,  width  18}  2  inches. 

Flemish  Verdure  Tapestry  with  Swans. 
Brussels,  17th  century.  Gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Burrows  McNeir,  New  Bern  (G.57.20.1). 
Woven  in  colored  wools  and  silks,  h :  1 1 1 3^2, 
w:  187 3  2  inches.  Coll.:  George  McNeir, 
New  York,  from  1929. 


Collection  of  eleven  Coptic  textile  frag- 
ments, 3rd  to  8th  century  A.D.  (G. 57. 14.1 
to  .11). 

Lace  fragment,  Monkey  Design.  Peruvian 
(Chimu),  about  1300-1438  A.D.  (G.57.- 
14.14)  Embroidery  on  gauze,  alpaca  and 
cotton,  h:1834,  w:\5^i  inches. 

Portrait  Head  from  a  Mummy.  Egyptian 
(Ptolemaic)  323-30  B.C.  (G.57.14.13). 
Plaster,  h:10  inches. 

Bowl  with  fish  design.  Coptic  (Wadi 
Sarga?),  5th  to  6th  century  (G.57.14.12). 
Terra  cotta,  h:8,  diam:12  inches. 

Corinthian  vase,  6th  century  B.C. 
(G.57.14.17).  H:16  inches. 

Top-handle  wine-skin  shaped  vase.  South 


25 


Italian,  4th  century  B.C.  (G.57. 14.18). 
H:7  1  2  inches. 

Amphora.  Greek,  4th  century  B.C. 
(G.57. 14.25).  H:15M  inches. 

Collection  of  six  Greek  vases,  7th  to 
3rd  century  B.C.  (G.57. 14.19  to  .24). 

Black  Janus  vase.  Roman,  1st  to  2nd 
century  A.D.  (G.57. 14.39).  H:7lA  inches. 

Attic  vase,  red  figures  on  black 
background.  Greek,  5th  century  B.C. 
(G.57.14.43). 

The  above  objects  gifts  of  Dr.  and  Mrs. 
Fred  Olsen,  Guilford,  Connecticut. 


Relief  with  Harp  Player.  Egyptian  (Tell 
'Amarna),  1377-1358  B.C.  (L.57.14.66). 
Limestone,  h:16,  w:15  inches. 

Two  Egyptian  ceramic  figures  (amulets?). 
(L.57. 14.70  and  .71). 

Five  canopic  jars.  Egyptian  (Saitic), 
663-525  B.C.  (L.57. 14.73  and  .99  to  .102). 

*  Only  long-term  loans  are  listed. 


Child's  Tunic.  Coptic,  5th  century  A.D. 
(L.57.14.77).  H:14,  w:17  inches. 

Fragment  of  Fostat  pottery  showing  man 
with  sacrificial  knife  holding  head  of 
lamb.  Egypt,  9th  century  A.D.  H:5,  w:4 
inches  (L.57. 14. 89). 

Pectoral  Painting  from  Mummy  Case. 
Egyptian,  Saitic  (663-525  B.C.).  (L.57.- 
14.78).  Plaster  on  cloth,  h:20  inches. 

Section  of  Mummy  Case  with  Goddess 
Nut.  Egyptian  (Saitic),  663-525  B.C.  H:15, 
w:5  inches.  (L.57. 14.90). 

Egyptian  engraved  plaque  with  falcon 
and  lotus  plants  and  winged  sun.  Bronze, 
h:7,  w:43  2  inches.  (L.57. 14. 93). 

Mummy  Cloth.  Egyptian  (Saitic)  663- 
525  B.C.  H:84,  w:28  inches.  (L.57. 14. 95). 

Coptic  textile  fragment.  Polychrome 
"comic  strip"  character,  h:13,  w:7  inches. 
(L.57.14.103). 

Black-figured  Crater  with  Satyr  and 
Dancing  Nymphs.  Greek,  5th  century  B.C. 
H:6^2  inches  (L.57. 14.104). 

The  above  objects  lent  by  Dr.  and  Mrs. 
Fred  Olsen,  Guilford,  Connecticut.* 


26 


Portrait  Head  From  a  Mummy.  Egyptian  (Ptolemaic),  323-30  B.C.  Plaster,  height  10  inches. 
Gift  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Fred  Olsen,  Guilford,  Connecticut. 


27 


Above:  Textile  Fragment.  Coptic,  5th  to  6th  Century  A.D.  6x12  inches.  Gift  of  Dr.  and  Mrs. 
Fred  Olsen,  Guilford,  Connecticut. 

Below:  Textile  Fragment.  Coptic,  about  5th  Century  A.D.  8  x  15  inches.  Gift  of  Dr.  and  Mrs. 
Fred  Olsen,  Guilford,  Connecticut. 


28 


Gothic  Capital  (two  views).  French,  14th  Century.  Limestone,  height  10}4  inches.  Gift  of  Dr. 
and  Mrs.  Fred  Olsen,  Guilford,  Connecticut. 


St.  Mary  Magdalene  (two  views).  French  (He     Gift  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Fred  Olsen,  Guilford, 
de  France),  about  1500.  Sandstone,  height  59  Connecticut, 
inches.  Formerly  Dikran  Kelekian  Collection. 


St.  Sebastian.  South  German,  about  1750. 
Boxwood,  height  13  inches.  Gift  of  Mrs.  Betty 
Mont,  New  York. 


Madonna  and  Child.  Lower  Rhenish,  about  1500. 
Boxwood,  height  8j-2  inches.  Gift  of  Dr. 
Frederick  Mont,  New  York. 


31 


THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  MUSEUM  OF  ART 


Officers  and  Board  of  Directors  of  the  State  Art  Society 

Governor  Luther  H.  Hodges  Honorary  President 

Mr.  Robert  Lee  Humber  President 

Mr.  Edwin  Gill  Vice-President 

Mrs.  James  H.  Cordon  Treasurer 

Vice-Presidents  at  Large  Elected 

Mrs.  Frank  Taylor  Dr.  Clarence  Poe 

Mrs.  Jacques  Busbee  Mrs.  Isabelle  Henderson 

Mr.  John  V.  Allcott  Dr.  Clemens  Sommer 

Mr.  Egbert  L.  Davis 

Appointed  by  the  Governor  Mr.  Henry  L.  Bridges 

Dr.  Sylvester  Green  Mr.  Gregory  Ivy 

Mrs.  Charles  Cannon  Mrs.  J.  H.  B.  Moore 

Mr.  Ralph  C.  Price  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Hamrick  Mack 

Ex  Officio 

Hon.  Luther  H.  Hodges  Governor  of  North  Carolina 

Dr.  Charles  M.  Carroll  State  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction 

Mr.  George  B.  Patton  Attorney  General 

Mrs.  C.  B.  Clegg  Art  Chairman,  North  Carolina  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs 

Staff  of  the  Museum 

Dr.  W.  R.  Valentiner  '  Director 

James  B.  Byrnes  Associate  Director 

Ben  F.  Williams  Curator 

May  Davis  Hill  Librarian  and  Registrar 

William  T.  Beckwith  Budget  Officer 

Peggy  Jo  Kirby  Secretary  to  Director 

Peggy  Noblin  Secretary 

Edith  Johnson  Sales  Desk 

William  A.  Weathersby  Library  Assistant 

Mary  Jerman  Panton  .  .  Information  Assistant 

James  Long  Museum  Technician 

Branton  L.  Olive  Packer  and  Shipper 

James  R.  Hampton  Head  Museum  Guard 

Information 

Hours:  Open  Tuesdays  through  Saturdays  10-5;  Sundays  2-6;  Closed  Mondays,  and 
legal  holidays. 

Telephone:    TE  4-3611,  Ext.  7569. 

Tours:    May  be  scheduled  upon  advance  written  request. 

Membership  in  the  North  Carolina  State  Art  Society:  Annual  $5.00;  Contributor 
$10.00;  Sustaining  $25.00;  Patron  $50.00;  Life  $100.00;  Donor  $500.00;  Benefactor 
$1,000.00. 

All  gifts  to  the  Museum,  whether  of  objects  or  money,  are  tax  deductible.  Names  of 
donors  are  permanently  attached  to  objects  purchased  with  donated  funds. 


EXHIBITION  CALENDAR 


OCTOBER  and  NOVEMBER  "THE  MOTHER  AND  CHILD  THEME  IN  ART." 

A  specially  arranged  exhibition  by  the  Museum  of  some  fifty  paintings  and  sculp- 
tures. The  core  of  this  exhibition  will  be  a  number  of  works  from  the  Museum's 
own  collection;  other  items  will  be  borrowed  from  public  and  private  collections  through- 
out the  country.  The  exhibition  will  trace  the  mother  and  child  theme  in  art  through 
history,  from  its  beginning  to  the  present.  From  the  Museum's  own  collection,  paintings 
by  Berlinghiero  Berlinghieri,  Guido  Reni,  Del  Sarto,  Cima,  Rubens,  and  Van  Dyck  will 
be  featured.  A  catalogue  for  the  exhibition  is  contemplated.  Opening  dates  to  be  announced. 

NOVEMBER  5  through  NOVEMBER  24.  "THE  LITTLE  INTERNATIONAL 
EXHIBITION."  A  special  exhibition  travelling  under  the  auspices  of  the  Olsen  Founda- 
tion featuring  the  works  of  contemporary  painters  throughout  the  world.  This  exhibition 
made  up  of  smaller  canvases  surveys  the  impact  of  abstract  painting  on  the  world  today. 
This  show  will  open  in  the  Museum  and  will  be  available  for  a  limited  number  of  bookings 
to  other  art  centers  and  colleges  throughout  the  state  without  charge.  This  is  the  first 
in  a  series  of  exhibitions  offered  by  the  Olsen  Foundation  which  will  be  available  from 
time  to  time  on  the  same  basis. 

DECEMBER  4  through  DECEMBER  29.  "NORTH  CAROLINA  ARTISTS'  EXHI- 
BITION." An  annual  exhibition  sponsored  by  the  North  Carolina  State  Art  Society 
open  to  native  North  Carolinians  and  to  other  artists  who  have  lived  in  the  state  for  the 
twelve  months  immediately  preceding  October  1957,  or  for  a  period  of  five  years  at  some 
other  time.  The  exhibition  will  be  juried  by  a  panel  of  experts  invited  from  outside  the 
region.  Funds  are  being  solicited  in  order  to  acquire  some  of  the  prize  works  through 
Art  Society  purchase.  This  exhibition  will  be  previewed  by  those  attending  the  annual 
Art  Society  meeting  on  December  4. 

DECEMBER  4  through  DECEMBER  29.  "TOMLIN  MEMORIAL  EXHIBITION." 

An  exhibition  of  paintings  by  the  late  Bradley  Walker  Tomlin  (1899-1953),  distinguished 
American  contemporary  artist.  This  exhibition  is  being  shared  with  the  University  of 
California  at  Los  Angeles. 

During  the  fall  and  winter  seasons,  the  Museum  plans  to  present  exhibitions  of  decorative 
arts,  contemporary  design,  and  a  few  special  lectures,  the  details  for  which  will  be  an- 
nounced in  the  local  press. 


The  North  Carolina     useum  of  Art 

RALEIGH,  NORTH  CAROLINA 

6882  xcg 

UOTETATQ    83  T  A. ICQ  JE3]Ui;0aX 


NON-PROFIT  ORG. 
U.  S.  POSTAGE 

PAID 

RALEIGH,  N.  C 
Permit  No.  453 


Fall  1957 


THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  MUSEUM  OF  ART 

BULLETIN 


Volume  I  Autumn  1957  Number  3 


CONTENTS 

An  Unknown  Portrait  by  Peter  Gaertner    

By  Paul  Wescher 

Cellini's  Neptune  Model   5 

By  W.  R.  Valentiner 

Joan  of  Arc  by  Rubens   11 

By  W.  R.  Valentiner 

Sully's  Copy  of  the  "Lansdowne"  Washington   17 

By  James  B.  Byrnes 

Jacob  Marling,  Early  Raleigh  Painter   2 

By  Ben  F.  Williams 

Exhibition  of  Paintings  by  Enrique  Montenegro   3 

By  James  B.  Byrnes 

Photographic  Credits:  page  18,  Bill  Gulley,  State  Advertising  Division,  Raleigh. 


Cover:  Benvenuto  Cellini  (Italian,  1500-1571),  Neptune.  About  1560.  Bronze,  height 
9^2  inches.  Long-term  loan  from  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Arthur  W.  Levy,  Jr.,  Raleigh. 


The  North  Carolina  Museum  of  Art  Bulletin  is  published  quarterly.  Copyright,  1957,  by  the  North  Carolina  Museun 
of  Art,  107  East  Morgan  Street,  Raleigh,  North  Carolina.  Subscriptions  $1.00  a  year.  Single  copies  $.25.  Sent  fre 
to  North  Carolina  State  Art  Society  members.  Four  weeks'  notice  required  for  change  of  address. 


AN  UNKNOWN  PORTRAIT  BY  PETER  GAERTNER 


By  Paul  Wescher 


Four  years  ago  when  the  North  Carolina 
|j  Museum  of  Art  acquired  the  realistic 
!  portrait  of  an  old  man  by  Peter  Gaertner, 
j  signed  and  dated  1524,  it  was  the  only 
lone  known  of  its  early  kind,  as  all  the  other 

portraits  by  Gaertner  are  of  much  later 

date  and  represent  an  entirely  different 
jtype  of  idealized  court  portraiture.  But, 
||as  in  all  science  one  discovery  leads  to 
:!  another,  it  did  not  take  long  for  a  second 
I  early  portrait  by  Gaertner's  hand  to  be 

retrieved  from  an  auction  sale  in  London 
iland  bought  by  the  Museum  of  Heidelberg 

(Germany),  which  under  its  able  director, 
[Dr.  Georg  Poensgen,  successfully  maintains 
ijthe  tradition  of  the  well-known  founder  of 
Ithe  famous  castle,  Ottheinrich  of  the  Pfalz. 
jFrom  1537  onward  this  duke-elector  had 
fl  Peter  Gaertner  attached  to  his  permanent 
jlservice  as  court  painter,  and  it  was  for 
Ithis  reason  that  the  director  of  the  Heidel- 
iiberg  Museum  was  interested  in  purchasing 
Ithe  newly  discovered  portrait. 

According  to  costume  and  appearance, 
If  this  portrait  also  represents  a  citizen,  be 
[|he  a  patrician  or  a  merchant  or  an  artisan, 

rather  than  an  aristocrat,  and  the  strong 

features  of  the  sitter  are  brought  to  life  with 
[the  same  simplicity  in   both  delineation 

(and  modeling  as  in  the  Raleigh  portrait, 

jso  that  even  without  the  well-known 
[(signature   and    the   date    1524   which  is 

found  in  the  upper  right-hand  corner,  one 
liwould  not  hesitate  to  recognize  the  painter. 

But  the  comparison  also  shows  that 
[Gaertner  in  these  years  was,  like  most  of 


1  See  Journal  of  the  Wallers  Art  Gallery  (1954),  p.  71  fl'. 


the  German  painters,  able  to  express  the 
individual  character  much  more  strongly 
than  in  his  later  years,  and,  if  we  com- 
pare the  two  early  paintings,  with  en- 
tirely adequate  means.  Thus  while  the 
Raleigh  portrait  shows  a  rather  pale  com- 
plexion with  slight  shading  which  empha- 
sizes the  light  blue  color  of  the  eyes,  so 
typical  for  the  expression  of  an  older 
person,  the  portrait  in  Heidelberg  on  the 
other  hand,  by  the  brownish  tints,  strong 
modelling  and  dark  eyes,  expresses  the 
entirely  different  personality  of  this  man, 
whose  age  is  indicated  by  the  inscription 
as  being  forty-nine  years.  It  is  also  note- 
worthy to  observe  how  easily  and  differently 
Gaertner  was  able  to  render  such  materials 
as  the  furs  around  the  collars  or  the  gold 
embroidered  cap  which  for  a  time  was  the 
fashion  among  the  well-to-do  citizens  of 
the  south  German  towns.  In  this  respect 
he  showed  the  same  unerring  draftsman- 
ship in  which  most  of  the  German  masters 
of  the  late  Gothic  and  early  Renaissance 
period  excelled,  the  calligraphy  which 
originated  in  their  drawing  and  from  there 
was  transferred  to  the  painting. 

In  a  previous  article  on  Peter  Gaertner,1 
I  pointed  out  that  at  the  time  when  he 
was  engaged  as  painter  to  the  court  ol 
Pfalz  Neuburg  and  executed  in  the  years 
after  1537  the  many  princely  portraits 
which  are  still  preserved  in  the  National 
Museum  in  Munich  and  the  Museums  of 
Augsburg,  Schleissheim  and  Burghausen, 
he  was  no  longer  a  young  man,  and  the 
two  portraits  in  Raleigh  and  Heidelberg, 
dated  1524  and  1523  respectively,  do  not 


i 


Peter  Gaertner  (German,  active  1523-1537),  Portrait  of  a  Man.  Dated  1523.  Heidel- 
berg, Kurpfalzisches  Museum. 


2 


appear  as  works  of  a  beginner,  so  that,  as 
no  date  of  his  birth  or  birthplace  has  been 
documented,   we  may  with  some  prob- 
ability assume  that  he  was  born  around 
1500  or  even   earlier.   This   would  also 
explain  the  outspoken  Gothic  approach  to 
ortraiture  which  we  observe  in  these  two 
pictures  and  which  is  still  apparent  in  his 
>nly  signed  figure  painting  in  the  Walters 
\rt  Gallery  in  Baltimore,  which  I  published 
n  the  previous  occasion.  As  I  have  ex- 
plained,   the   conditions   of  German  art 
lpon  which  the  Renaissance  ideas  had 
)een  grafted  in  a  rather  superficial  way 
hanged  rapidly  in  the  decade  after  Diirer's 
ieath  (1528)  and  after  the  spreading  of 
he  Reformation  in  many  important  cities 
f  southern  Germany.  The  guild  system 
nd  the  artisan  lost  their  hold  on  the  rule 
f  affairs,   and   consequently   a   shift  of 
iatronage  took  place  from  the  citizens  of 
he  independent  towns  to  the  princes  of  the 
aller  and  larger  states  of  which  Germany 
/as  then  composed.  While,  as  we  said,  the 
lain  goal  of  the  former  portraits  was  the 
rong  and  realistic  rendering  of  the  indi- 


vidual character,  which  indeed  reached 
there  a  unique  height,  that  of  the  later 
period  tended  toward  idealization  similar 
to  that  of  the  Romans  in  the  Imperial 
time  and  was  influenced  by  the  inter- 
national pattern  set  in  Italy,  France,  and 
Flanders.  Thus  Gaertner  presents  the  most 
perfect  example  for  this  change  in  per- 
ception, which  occurred  on  a  more  general 
basis  between  the  third  and  fifth  decades 
of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  the  newly 
discovered  picture  amplifies  in  the  most 
fortunate  way  what  the  portrait  in  the 
North  Carolina  Museum  of  Art  already 
indicated.  The  particular  gift  of  the  late 
Gothic  German  painters,  a  gift  based 
mainly  on  their  capacities  for  draftsman- 
ship in  reducing  the  natural  image  to 
some  salient  lines  and  simplified  modelling, 
has  not  been  entirely  recognized  in  this 
country,  but  there  can  be  little  doubt  that 
it  will  find  sooner  or  later  the  full  appreci" 
ation  it  deserves. 


Dr.  Wescher  is  director  of  the  J.  Paul 
Getty  Museum,  Malibu,  California. 


3 


Peter  Gaertner,  Portrait  of  an  Old  Man.  Dated  1524.  Panel,  19x13  inches.  From  the 
Museum's  collection. 


4 


CELLINI'S  NEPTUNE  MODEL 
By  W.  R.  Valentiner 


Aside  from  the  Perseus  in  the  Loggia  dei 
jLanzi  in  Florence  and  the  saltcellar  in 
the  Vienna  Museum,  Benvenuto  Cellini  is 
jmost  famous  on  account  of  his  autobi- 
ography, which  is  indeed  a  work  of  unique 
:haracter  in  the  literature  of  the  world. 

Not  only  does  he  tell  this  story  of  his 
life  in  the  most  entertaining  and  dramatic 
fashion,  presenting  himself  at  the  same 
:ime  as  a  hero  in  the  style  of  Dumas' 
musketeers  and  as  a  most  efficient  and 
nventive  artist,  but  he  also  unconsciously 
rives  an  excellent  lesson  on  how  happiness 
Iran  be  attained  in  life.  For  in  spite  of  all 
lis  terrific  troubles  and  struggles,  he  always 
:omes  through  triumphantly,  believing  in 
lis  own  courage  and  luck,  and  in  his 
mportance. 

Happiness  in  his  case — and  perhaps  not 
)nly  in  his — is  the  result  of  his  accomplish- 
nents  in  his  work,  which  fill  him  with 
;uch  pride  that  he  has  to  tell  the  whole 
vorld  about  it.  If  by  chance  he  deviates 
)y  telling  stories  of  fights  or  battles,  like 
he  "sacco  di  Roma,"  he  knows  how  to 
)lace  himself  in  the  center  of  action,  but 
hen  he  suddenly  remembers  that  it  is  of 
he  greatest  importance  to  relate  his  artistic 
ichievements,  as  they  will  last  longer  than 
he  ephemeral  deeds  he  accomplished  with 
lis  sword  or  his  gun. 

We  have  to  thank  his  taking  himself  so 
eriously  for  the  fact  that  in  his  biography 
ie  enumerates  probably  every  work  which 
ie  ever  executed.  Due  to  the  careful 
inscription  he  gives,  it  has  been  possible 
"O  identify  nearly  all  these  works,  with 
he  exception  of  the  many  smaller  gold- 


Fig.  1.  Benvenuto  Cellini  (Italian,  1500-1571), 
Neptune.  About  1560.  Bronze,  height  9}4  inches. 
Long-term  loan  from  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Arthur  W. 
Levy,  Jr.,  Raleigh. 

smith  pieces,  such  as  small  vases,  medals, 
clasps,  seals,  and  so  on,  which  were  mostly 
executed  in  his  earlier  period. 

If  thus  far  no  attempt  has  been  made  to 
identify  his  models  for  the  Neptune  foun- 
tain of  about  1560  on  the  Piazza  della 
Signoria  in  Florence,  the  reason  probably 
has  been  that  a  considerable  number  of 
bronze  statuettes  representing  Neptune 
drawn  by  his  seahorses  still  exist  in  different 
collections  which  are  related  either  to  the 


5 


Fig.  2.  Benvenuto  Cellini  (Italian,  1500-1571), 
Minerva.  Bronze  statuette  at  the  base  of  the 
Perseus  in  the  Loggia  dei  Lanzi,  Florence. 

Neptune  fountain  in  Florence  or  to  that 
of  Giovanni  da  Bologna  in  Bologna  (1563), 
and  that  it  is  not  easy  to  differentiate  the 
Cellini  composition  from  those  of  other 
sculptors  who  were  competing  for  the 
Florentine  fountain.  Yet  it  is  quite  likely 
that  a  model  by  Cellini  still  exists,  as  he 
devotes  almost  as  much  space  to  its  descrip- 
tion as  he  does  to  the  execution  of  the 
Perseus  models  (now  preserved  in  the 
Museo  Nazionale),  and  besides,  in  the 
inventory  drawn  up  after  Cellini's  death 
these  models  for  the  Neptune  are  mentioned. 

The  long  story  of  the  competition  for 
the  Neptune  fountain,  as  told  by  Cellini, 


deals  mainly  with  the  court  intrigues  in 
which    the    Grand    Duchess    played    the  I 
essential  part:  She  could  not  be  swayed  \ 
from  her  decision  to  let  her  favorite  sculptor,  I 
Bandinelli,   receive  the  commission,   and  1 
after  his  death  she  fought  to  the  last  in  the 
interest  of  Bandinelli's  pupil,  AmmanatiJ 
The  idea  of  placing  the  large  fountain! 
in  the  center  of  the  Piazza  della  Signorian 
seems  to  go  back  to  Bandinelli,  who,  after  ; 
finishing  his  controversial  group  of  "Her- 
cules and  Cacus"  in  front  of  the  Palazzo,.! 
Vecchio,   wanted   to   add   another,  even 
more  important  work  of  his,  in  its  immediate,! 
neighborhood.    Upon   his   wish,    a  large 
block  was  quarried  on  order  of  the  Grand) 
Duke  in  the  early  forties  of  the  century., 
The  block  was  shipped  on  the  Arno  to  the( 
Villa  Medici  at  Poggio  a  Cajano,  and  it; 
lay  there  for  years  until  after  the  death  oft 
Bandinelli,    when    Cellini   conceived  the|! 
idea  of  making  two  small  models  which: 
could  be  used  for  the  Neptune  of  thei 
fountain. 

When  the  Grand  Duke  came  unex- 
pectedly to  Cellini's  studio,  the  artist 
showed  him  the  two  models.  He  likec 
them  both,  one  more  than  the  other,  anc 
asked  Cellini  to  finish  carefully  the  on( 
he  liked  best.  The  Cardinal  of  Santz 
Fiore  told  Cellini  at  the  same  time  tha 
he  had  recently  been  in  Poggio  a  Cajanc 
with  the  Grand  Duke  and  that  when  the} 
passed  the  marble  block,  which  was  stili 
lying  there,  the  Grand  Duke  had  said  tc; 
him  that  the  block  was  destined  "for  rw 
friend  Benvenuto,  who  has  made  a  splendk 
model  for  the  execution  of  the  Neptune.' 

When  Cellini  had  finished  the  mode 
which  the  Grand  Duke  liked  so  much,  h< 
showed  it  to  him  on  the  occasion  of  anothe 


visit  which  Cosimo  made  to  Cellini's 
studio.  He  was  accompanied  this  time  by 
two  ambassadors  to  whom  he  confided, 
according  to  Cellini's  story,  "Upon  my 
word,  Benvenuto  deserves  the  marble."  1 

But  behind  Cellini's  back  the  persistent 
efforts  of  the  Grand  Duchess,  who  seems 
to  have  sworn  that  Cellini  should  not  get 
1  the  order,  changed  the  situation,  and  all 
that  Cellini  could  accomplish  was  that  a 
competition   be   arranged   in   which  the 
following  sculptors  should  participate  by 
i  presenting  life-size  models  of  the  Neptune: 
namely,  Giovanni  da  Bologna,  who  worked 
\on  his  model  in  the  cloister  of  Santa  Croce; 
IVincenzo  Danti,  an  excellent  follower  of 
I  Michelangelo,  who  had  his  studio  for  this 
i purpose  at  the  house  of  Ottaviano  Medici; 
fCioli,  who  worked  in  Pisa;  and  Ammanati 
and  Cellini,  who  both  were  allowed  to  use 
the  Loggia  dei  Lanzi,  which  was  divided 
into  two  sections,  as  their  workshop.  After 
the  artists  had  made  sufficient  progress,  the 
(Grand  Duke  came  first  to  visit  Ammanati, 
with  whose  work  he  was  not  especially 
(pleased,  if  we  are  to  believe  Cellini.  Then 
[he  went  next  door  to  Cellini,  who  describes 
ithe  visit  as  follows   (we  have  to  quote 
(literally  as  it  gives  us  an  important  clue 
jto  the  identification  of  our  Neptune  bronze 
jstatuette) : 

No  sooner  had  he  entered  the  en- 
closure and  cast  his  eyes  upon  my 
work,  when  he  gave  signs  of  being 
greatly  satisfied.  Then  he  walked  all 
around  it,  stopping  at  each  of  the 
four  points  of  view  exactly  as  the 
ripest  experts  would  have  done.  .  .  . 
Then  he  turned  to  his  attendants, 
praising  my  performance  and  saying: 


benvenuto    Cellini,    Autobwgi aphy    (tr.  Symonds), 
New  York,  Modern  Library,  p.  459. 
2  Autobiography,  p.  462. 


"The  small  model  which  I  saw  in  his 
house  pleased  me  greatly,  but  this  has 
far  exceeded  it  in  merit."  2 

What  now  gives  us  the  right  to  attribute 
to  Cellini  the  bronze  group  from  the  Mor- 
timer Schiff  collection,  which  has  been  ac- 
quired under  the  name  of  a  Florentine 
master  at  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century 
and  is  now  on  long-term  loan  to  the  Mu- 
seum from  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Arthur  W.  Levy, 
Jr.?  In  its  elongated  proportion,  with  the 
comparatively  small  head,  it  is  characteristic 
of  the  mannerist  style  of  the  followers  of 
Michelangelo  of  the  second  half  of  the  six- 
teenth century.  The  contrapposto  movement 
of  arms  and  legs,  which  remind  us  of  Cel- 
lini's Perseus,  is  no  doubt  derived  from  the 
great  master,  who  of  all  sculptors  was  most 
admired  by  Cellini.  The  forms  are,  how- 
ever, more  open  than  Michelangelo's,  and 
show  the  character  of  the  bronze  sculptor, 
who  builds  the  composition  up  from  the 
clay  model,  while  Michelangelo  preferred 
the  closed  forms  appropriate  to  the  marble 
sculptor.  Typical  for  the  master  of  the 
Neptune  is  the  exaggerated  modeling  of 
the  thorax  with  markings  of  the  ribs  and 
the  breast  and  this  is  just  what  we  observe 
in  the  bronze  statuettes  of  Cellini,  combined 
with  the  elegance  of  the  body  in  a  classical 
tendency  which  Cellini  also  followed.  The 
Neptune  head  goes  back  to  a  Jupiter  type 
(like  the  Zeus  of  Otricoli)  which  Cellini 
used  more  than  once.  We  learn  from  his 
memoirs  that  he  was  fond  of  studying 
antique  sculptures,  which  in  his  earliest 
youth  he  found  in  the  Camposanto  in  Pisa 
and  later  in  cameos  and  medals,  of  which 
he  mentions  one  (p.  53):  "Among  many 
bronze  medals  I  obtained  one,  upon  which 
was  a  head  of  Jupiter.  It  was  the  largest  I 


7 


Figs.  3  and  4.  Details  of  Figure  1. 
8 


have  ever  seen,  the  head  of  the  most  perfect 
execution.  .  .  ." 

The  execution  of  the  statuette,  with  the 
fine  chiseling  and  the  artificial  patina,  is 
that  of  a  goldsmith,  especially  in  the 
precise  design  of  the  two  seahorses,  which 
remind  us  of  those  on  the  Vienna  saltcellar. 

The  two  seahorses  are  turned  in  different 
directions,  in  contrast  to  Ammanati's  and 
other  sculptors'  similar  compositions,  where 
groups  of  three  or  four  seahorses  are  all 
directed  to  the  front.  This  brings  us  to  a 
very  essential  point:  Cellini  was  one  of  the 
first  to  work  consciously,  with  a  definite 
theory,  on  all-round  sculptures,  while 
Michelangelo's  works  were  still  connected 
with  the  wall  behind  them.  He  stresses  in 
his  story  about  the  Neptune  model,  that 
it  should  be  seen  from  four  sides.  This  can 
be  easily  verified  in  our  model  if  we  look 
at  the  Neptune  from  the  two  profiles, 
from  the  front  and  from  the  back.  These 
different  views  are  so  clearly  marked  that 
it  is  almost  impossible  to  overlook  them  in 
a  careful  inspection.  And  we  can  well 
understand  that  the  Grand  Duke,  who 
undoubtedly  had  been  instructed  before  by 
Cellini  on  his  theory  of  representing  free- 
standing sculptures  so  that  they  appeared 
perfect  from  all  sides,  was  delighted  when 
the  artist  approved  of  his  studying  the 
sculpture  from  different  angles.3 

Before  Cellini  could  finish  the  large 
model  of  the  Neptune,  he  became  seriously 
ill.  As  soon  as  he  was  better,  he  worked  on 
a  marble  crucifix  which  he  wanted  to 
donate  to  one  of  the  churches.  He  had, 
however,  not  forgotten  the  work  on  the 
Neptune  fountain.  When  the  crucifix  was 

3  For  a  criticism  of  Cellini's  theory,  see  Herbert  Read, 
The  Art  of  Sculpture,  New  York,  Pantheon,  1956,  pp. 
62-63. 


finished,  the  Grand  Duke  and  the  Duchess 
came  to  see  it;  they  were  both  full  of  admira- 
tion. Cellini  took  advantage  of  their  good 
humour  and  presented  it  to  them,  obviously 
having  it  in  mind  to  turn  their  thinking 
toward  the  Neptune  fountain,  which  was 
not  yet  definitely  commissioned  to  anyone. 
After  he  had  offered  the  crucifix,  he  asked 
them  to  come  to  the  ground  floor  of  his 
dwelling  .  .  .  "and  on  entering  the  house, 
beheld  my  little  model  of  the  Neptune  and 
the  fountain,  which  had  not  yet  been  seen 
by  the  Duchess.  This  struck  her  with  such 
force  that  she  raised  a  cry  of  indescribable 
astonishment,  and  turning  to  the  Duke, 
exclaimed:  'Upon  my  life,  I  never  dreamed 
it  could  be  one-tenth  part  so  beautiful !' 
The  Duke  replied  by  repeating  more  than 
once:  'Did  I  not  tell  you  so?'  Thus  they 
continued  talking  for  some  while  greatly 
in  my  honour.  Afterwards  the  Duchess 
called  me  to  her  side;  and  when  she  had 
uttered  many  expressions  of  praise  which 
sounded  like  excuses  (they  might  indeed 
have  been  construed  into  asking  for  for- 
giveness), she  told  me  that  she  should  like 
me  to  quarry  a  block  of  marble  to  my 
taste,  and  then  to  execute  the  work.  In 
reply  to  these  gracious  speeches  I  said 
that,  if  their  most  illustrious  Excellencies 
would  provide  me  with  the  necessary 
accommodations,  I  should  gladly  for  their 
sakes  put  my  hand  to  such  an  arduous 
undertaking.  The  Duke  responded  on  the 
moment:  'Benvenuto,  you  shall  have  all  the 
accommodations  you  can  ask  for;  and  I 
will  myself  give  you  more  besides,  which 
shall  surpass  them  far  in  value.'  With 
these  agreeable  words  they  left  me,  and  I 
remained  highly  satisfied." 

But  here  we  come  to  the  end  of  the  story. 


9 


"Many  weeks  passed,"  writes  Cellini,  "but 
of  me  nothing  more  was  spoken.  This 
neglect  drove  me  half  mad  with  despair." 
Cellini  was  about  to  accept  the  offer  of 
the  Queen  of  France  to  return  to  France, 
but  was  prevented  from  doing  so  by  the 
Grand  Duke,  who,  obviously  becoming- 
aware  of  the  injustice  he  had  done  to 
Cellini,  paid  him  1,500  crowns  for  the 
crucifix,  which  later  would  be  given  to  the 
King  of  Spain  (now  in  the  Escorial). 
The  crucifix  and  the  Neptune  model  are 


the   last   works   Cellini   mentions   in  his 
autobiography,  which  ends  with  the  year  I 
1562.  In  spite  of  the  appreciation  of  Cellini's 
model   by  the  Grand   Duke,  Ammanati 
was  finally  rewarded  (in  1563)  with  the 
Neptune  fountain — quite  to  the  detriment 
of  the  arts,  as  Ammanati's  Neptune  is  one  'I 
of  the  least  worthy  sculptures  of  monu-  1 
mental  size  of  the  High  Renaissance  in 
Florence,  far  inferior  to  the  other  works 
of  this  master  and  to  Cellini's  model. 


i 


10 


JOAN  OF  ARC:  BY  RUBENS 


By  W.  R.  Valentiner 


If  we  exclude  Ingres,  whose  "Joan  of 
Arc  at  the  Coronation  of  Charles  VII'1  is 
a  rather  cold,  classisistic  performance, 
Rubens  is  the  only  one  of  the  great  early 
masters  who  occupied  himself  with  the 
strange  and  fascinating  figure  of  the  French 
liberation  movement  in  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury. Although  the  documents  of  her  most 
cruel  and  unfair  trial  with  all  its  horrible 
details  were  not  known  as  they  are  today, 
Joan  of  Arc's  memory  had  been  kept  alive 
through  the  centuries  following  her  execu- 
tion. There  were  a  few  minor  French  artists 
of  the  seventeenth  century  who  painted 
her  in  a  series  of  the  heroines  of  the  past 
in  conventional  representations.  But 
Rubens,  with  his  remarkable  scholarly 
knowledge  of  past  history,  always  went  to 
the  bottom  of  the  sources  available  during 
his  time  when  he  tackled  a  historical 
subject.  An  early  likeness  of  Joan  of  Arc 
:ould  be  found  in  the  crude  statuette 
placed  in  a  niche  of  Joan's  home  in 
Domremy  where  she  kneels  in  prayer, 
wearing  around  her  neck  a  stiff  collar 
*vhich  points  to  the  late  sixteenth  century 
is  the  time  of  the  execution  of  the  figure. 
3ut  the  best  likeness  was  perhaps  that  of 
he  large  crucifixion  group  once  standing 
ipon  the  bridge  at  Orleans,  which  was 
rected  by  the  pious  women  of  that  town 
it  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century.  Here, 


1  The  reproductions  of  the  prints  from  the  book  by 
I.  Wallon,  Jeanne  a" Arc,  Paris,  1876,  have  been  kindly 
rovided  by  the  Frick  Library  (research  done  by  M. 
teinbach).  I  am  indebted  to  Mr.  Edwin  Gill  for  com- 
lunicating  this  information  to  me  and  for  other  sug- 
estions  used  in  this  article. 


also,  Joan  was  shown  in  armor  kneeling 
and  praying  in  front  of  a  crucifix.  King 
Charles  kneels  opposite  her,  and  both  arc 
in  profile.  The  size  of  the  crucifix  is  enor- 
mous compared  to  the  two  figures  who,  in 
medieval  fashion,  like  donors  in  the  paint- 
ings of  the  period,  are  shown  in  almost 
miniature  proportion,  as  it  behooves  earthly 
figures  appearing  next  to  the  heavenly  one. 

This  stone  monument  was  destroyed  by 
the  Calvinists  in  1562.  Rubens,  therefore, 
could  not  have  seen  the  original.  A  second 
monument  was  erected  on  the  Orleans 
bridge  in  1571  (destroyed  during  the 
revolution  of  1792).  As  we  do  not  know  of 
any  journey  that  Rubens  made  to  Orleans, 
it  is  likely  that  he  became  acquainted 
with  the  first  or  the  second  monument 
through  prints.  Of  the  first  monument  a 
woodcut  existed  (see  Figure  1 ) ;  of  the 
second,  an  engraving  (see  Figure  2).1  In 
comparing  them  with  Rubens'  represen- 
tation, we  believe  that  the  heavier  forms 
of  Joan  of  Arc  may  speak  for  his  having 
used  the  second  monument;  but  the  similar 
position  of  the  sword  and  the  fact  that 
Joan  prays  before  a  crucifix  and  not 
before  a  Pieta.  make  it  more  likely  that  the 
artist  had  the  woodcut  of  the  earlier  monu- 
ment in  mind.  Whether  Rubens  used  the 
one  or  the  other  reproduction  of  the  stone 
monument  in  Orleans  is  not  essential,  as 
this  historical  knowledge  was  for  him 
obviously  only  a  small  factor  in  the  crea- 
tion of  an  otherwise  completely  original 
masterpiece. 


1 1 


In  isolating"  the  individual  figure  from 
the  group,  the  artist  had  to  reverse  the 
I  proportions  in  the  relationship  between  the 
|  devotee  and  the  objeet  of  her  prayer.  In 
I  the  monuments  Christ  and  the  Pieta  are 
j  large  in  size  and  the  praying  maiden  is 
ij  quite  small,  while  in  the  painting  she  is  more 
I  than  life-size  and  the  crucifix  on  the  altar 
I  is  small.   Rubens  managed   to  give  the 
I  figure  a  reality  and  dramatic  force  that 
I  is  completely  lacking  in  the  simple  outlines 
I  of  the  engravings.  He  places  her  in  an 
■!  interior — in  a  chapel,  or  a  royal  camp,  or 
Ij  the    palace — where    she    prays    in  deep 
ji  emotion  before  going  into  battle.  Instead 
I  of  being  in  front  of  the  figure  of  Joan,  the 
M  helmet  is  placed  on  the  other  side,  filling 
:|  the  space  between  her  feet  and  the  border 
:|  of  the  composition.  The  intensity  of  her 
"ij  prayer  is  expressed  in  her  hands,  which 
;|  are  gloveless  (different  from  the  represen- 
;  I  tation  in  the  engravings),  and  her  gloves 
■  are  thrown  at  her  feet.  The  palms  touch 
j  one  another  warmly,  and  we  see  the  un- 
|j  evenly  spread  fingers  trembling  with  excite- 
!  ment. 

But  most  essential  is  the  fact  that  Rubens 
I  takes  the  figure  out  of  the  flatness  of  the 
i  profile,  giving  her  body  a  greater  vitality 
\  i  and  bringing  out  her  volume  through  a 
:  J  slight  turning  of  the  torso.  The  kneeling 
ti feet  are  not  placed  parallel  as  in  the  prints, 
.  Iibut  the  right  foot  is  moved  forward,  in 
:« front  of  the  left,  the  body  moves  in  a  curve, 
'land  the  head  is  slightly  turned  from  the 
j  Iright  to  the  left. 

In  accordance  with  the  baroque  princi- 
:  4  *  pies,  the  center  part  of  the  composition  is 
y.-  brought  forward  to  the  front,  while  the 
:  jsurrounding  sections  near  the  borders  are 
•  ■pushed  towards  the  depth  in  a  counter- 


movement.  The  volume  of  the  figure  is 
stressed  through  a  strong  modeling  in 
contrast  to  the  brilliant  light  effects  on  the 
suit  of  armor.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
countermovement  is  started  in  the  lower 
section  of  the  painting  where  a  dark  fold 
of  the  rug  runs  into  the  picture  from  the 
lower  left  corner,  meeting  in  the  center 
the  curve  formed  by  one  of  the  gloves  and 
the  left  knee  and  foot  coming  up  from  the 
right  corner.  This  movement  towards  the 
depth  is  continued  on  the  left  side  in  the 
perspective  lines  of  the  pillar  and  the 
crucifix,  on  the  right  side  in  the  feathers  of 
the  helmet  which  are  diminishing  towards 
the  background,  pointing  to  the  distant 
view  of  a  landscape  with  clouded  sky. 
Thus,  while  the  figure  is  surrounded  every- 
where by  a  depth  movement,  the  torso, 
head  and  arms  are  brought  forward  almost 
into  the  plane  of  the  spectator. 

Out  of  the  stiff  little  figure  of  the  engrav- 
ings the  great  master  has  created  a  powerful, 
full-blooded  young  woman,  blond  and 
Flemish  in  type,  robust  as  a  peasant,  yet 
showing  in  her  attitude  the  dignity  of  a 
princess  worthy  of  the  luxurious  surround- 
ings in  which,  thanks  to  her  unusual 
destiny,  she  is  placed. 

The  color  scheme  could  not  be  otherwise 
than  to  be  ruled  by  the  fervent  red  which 
dominates  the  composition  in  the  color  of 
the  curtain  and  the  carpet,  penetrates  her 
cheeks  and  hands,  and  rises  like  flames 
around  her  as  if  symbolizing  her  tragic 
end.  Lighter  waves  seem  to  rise  from  her 
hands  and  head  towards  heaven.  A  few 
touches  of  blue  and  yellow  (in  the  reflections 
of  the  armor  and  the  feathers  of  the  helmet) 
balance  the  emotional  masses  of  warm  red. 

The  painting  is  not  known  in  recent 


13 


i 


Fig.  3.  Peter  Paul  Rubens  (Flemish,  1577-1640),  Joan  of  Arc.  Canvas,  72  x  46>£ 
inches.  From  the  Museum's  collection. 


14 


15 


literature,  but  it  is  not  difficult  to  date.2 
It  must  have  been  executed  in  the  second 
decade,  at  the  time  when  Rubens  painted 
similar  beautiful  Flemish  types  with  long, 
blond  hair  falling  upon  their  shoulders, 
figures  of  solid  volume  painted  with  com- 
pact brushwork  like  the  "Venus"  in  repre- 
sentations in  Antwerp  and  Leningrad, 
"The  Rape  of  the  Sabine  Women"  in 
London,  and  various  Bacchanalian  com- 
positions. But,  in  contrast  to  such  tempes- 

2  The  only  good  description  of  earlier  times  is  by 
Johanna  Schopenhauer,  the  mother  of  the  famous 
philosopher,  who  during  an  excursion  to  the  Lower 
Rhine  and  Belgium  saw  the  painting  in  a  collection  of 
a  banker,  Schaffhausen,  at  Cologne  and  was  deeply 
moved  by  it  (1831).  She  says  that  it  had  been  given  by 
the  French  King  to  the  Archbishop  in  Cologne  (see 
M.  Rooses,  L'Oeuvre  de  P.P.  Rubens,  1890,  Vol.  IV,  No. 
816)  which  cannot  be  verified.  About  the  pedigree  see 
Catalogue  of  Paintings,  Raleigh,  The  North  Carolina 
Museum  of  Art,  1956,  No.  133. 


tuous  compositions,  our  painting  has  a 
more  personal,  almost  intimate  character,  j 
as  much  as  is  possible  in  so  extrovert  a 
temperament  as  that  of  Rubens.  That  the  I 
artist  painted  it  for  his  own  pleasure  may 
be  concluded  from  the  fact  that  he  kept 
it  in  his  collection  until  the  end  of  his  life 
when  it  is  mentioned  in  his  inventory  as 
"La  Pucelle  d'Orleans." 

At  the  time  the  painting  was  created 
(1615-20),  Rubens  already  had  quite  a 
number  of  helpers  in  his  studio,  but  they 
were  mostly  engaged  in  executing  the 
battle  and  hunting  scenes  and  the  altar- 
pieces  of  enormous  size  containing  masses 
of  figures.  We  believe  that  the  painting  of  j 
Joan  of  Arc  was  executed  by  Rubens'  own  I 
hand. 


16 


SULLY'S  COPY  OF  THE  "LANDSDOWNE"  WASHINGTON 


By  James  B.  Byrnes 


On  January  11,  1817,  William  Miller, 
(he  governor  of  North  Carolina,  wrote  two 
letters — one  to  Daniel  L.  Peck  of  Phila- 
delphia and  the  other  to  the  artist  Rem- 
brandt Peale,  then  residing  in  Baltimore. 
The  letters  stated  that  the  legislative 
session  of  the  previous  year  had  empowered 
him  to  "procure  two  full  length  paintings 
of  Gen'l  Washington  to  be  hung  up  in  the 
legislative  halls."  Governor  Miller  asked 
Peck  for  the  cost  of  such  paintings,  com- 
plete with  frames,  by  the  best  artist  in 
Philadelphia,  and  he  further  stated  that 
he  "understood  Stewarts  [sic]  likeness  of  the 
Gen'l  to  be  the  best  and  should  wish  to 
have  it  taken  from  this,  if  it  be  in  Phila- 
delphia, as  I  have  no  doubt  it  is."  He  asked 
the  same  question  of  Peale  regarding  the 
paintings,  frames,  and  price  delivered  in 
Raleigh. 

Peale,  in  his  lengthy  reply,  indicated 
that  his  price  for  full-length  figures  on 
foot  would  be  $1,500  each.  He  also  offered 
to  paint  an  equestrian  portrait  of  the 
General  for  two  or  three  thousand  dollars.1 

Peck    replied    recommending  Thomas 


1  In  1956  the  Museum  received  a  "Porthole  Portrait 
of  George  Washington"  by  Rembrandt  Peale  as  a  gift 
in  memory  of  Dr.  Charles  Lee  Smith  by  his  wife,  Cora 
Vaughan  Smith,  and  by  his  children,  William  Oliver 
Smith,  Charles  Lee  Smith,  Jr.,  and  Mrs.  Katherine 
Smith  Hardison  of  Raleigh. 

2  See,  for  a  discussion  of  "The  Passage  of  the  Dela- 
ware," "Thomas  Sully,"  by  James  B.  Eyrnes,  The 
North  Carolina  Museum  of  Art  Bulletin,  I,  No.  1  (Sprine, 
1957),  p.  19. 

3  "However  much  we  may  be  disposed  to  honor  the 
virtue  and  perpetuate  the  fame  of  the  immoitf  I  patriots 
yet  it  appears  to  me  that  it  will  look  a  little  lil  e  over- 
doing the  matter,  to  have  a  marble  statue,  a.nd  two 
portraits  of  the  same  person,  in  the  same  building." 
Letter  to  the  General  Assembly  of  the  State  of  North 
Carolina  from  John  Branch,  Governor,  Raleigh, 
November  23,  1819,  Journals  of  the  Hons-  of  Commons, 
1819,  p.  20. 


Sully  as  the  "first  artist"  in  Philadelphia 
and  enclosed  a  note  by  Sully,  who  offered 
to  do  the  portraits,  one  a  copy  of  the 
Stuart  painted  for  Mr.  Bingham  hanging 
in  the  Pennsylvania  Academy  of  Fine 
Arts,  for  four  hundred  dollars  plus  one 
hundred  dollars  for  a  frame.  He  observed 
that  Sully  preferred  the  bust  of  Washington 
by  the  Italian  sculptor  Ceracchi  in  the 
same  gallery,  considering  it  a  superior 
likeness,  and  for  his  second  portrait  he 
offered  to  paint  the  ill-fated  "Passage  of 
the  Delaware"  for  six  hundred  dollars.2 

The  Governor  chose  Sully  and  instructed 
Peck  to  have  him  proceed. 

From  then  on  a  great  deal  of  correspond- 
ence was  exchanged  until,  late  in  Novem- 
ber, 1818,  a  letter  announced  that  the 
painting  was  in  transit  and  would  be 
delivered  by  Robert  Hunte  of  Orange 
County.  Charges  were,  for  freight  from 
Philadelphia,  $4.80;  for  storage,  carting, 
etc.,  $2.00;  total,  $6.80. 

The  following  year  the  succeeding  gover- 
nor, John  Branch,  had  the  unpleasant  task 
of  informing  Sully  that  the  second  painting, 
"The  Passage  of  the  Delaware,"  which 
Sully  painted  on  a  canvas  seventeen  feet 
long  and  twelve  feet  high,  excluding  frame, 
would  not  fit  the  space  ten  feet  long  and 
nine  feet  two  inches  high  allotted  in  the 
Capitol,  and  that  he  regretted  that  his 
predecessors  had  not  forwarded  the  exact 
dimensions  before  the  work  had  progressed 
so  far.  In  Governor  Branch's  letter  it  was 
also  pointed  out  that  the  commission  for 
the  marble  statue  of  Washington  had  been 
given  to  Canova.3  Sully  released  the  State 
from  the  obligation  and  the  painting  was 


17 


Thomas  Sully  (American,  1783-1872),  Portrait  of  George  Washing- 
ton. Painted,  1816,  after  Gilbert  Stuart's  Lansdowne  portrait  in 
the  Pennsylvania  Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts,  Philadelphia.  State 
Capitol,  Raleigh. 


18 


Thomas  Sully,  The  Passage  of  the  Delaware.  Dated  1819.  Canvas,  146^2  x  207  inches.  Museum  of 
Fine  Arts,  Boston. 


eventually  sold.  It  is  now  the  property  of 
the  Museum  of  Fine  Arts  in  Boston. 

The  copy  of  the  Stuart  "Landsdowne" 
portrait  of  George  Washington  by  Sully 
was  installed  in  the  House  Chamber  in 
the  Capitol  in  Raleigh  in  181 8. 4  A  news- 
paper account  of  June  23,  1831,  tells  of 
the  dramatic  rescue  of  the  painting  along 
with  the  speaker's  stand  and  the  state 
files,  as  well  as  the  tragic  loss  of  the  Canova 


4  "[No.]  1894.  Washington,  General  George.  Copied 
from  Portrait  by  Gilbert  Stuart.  Painted  for  State  of 
North  Carolina,  begun  Oct.  17th,  1817,  finished  Feb. 
7,  1818.  Size  9  ft.  x  6  ft.  Price  $400.00."  Edward  Biddle 
and  Mantle  Fielding,  The  Life  and  Works  of  Thomas 
Sully,  Philadelphia,  Wickersham  Press,  1921. 

5  The  Raleigh  Register,  June  23,  1831. 


statue  despite  the  attempts  of  citizens  to 
roll  the  massive  marble  out  of  the  building.5 
To  replace  the  ruined  Capitol,  the  State 
chose  the  best  architectural  firm  of  the 
day,  Town  and  Davis  of  New  York,  whose 
original  adaptation  of  neoclassic  design  to 
the  project  has  made  the  building  one  of 
the  most  outstanding  public  structures  in 
America.  The  Sully  copy  was  placed  in 
the  new  building  in  the  place  of  honor, 
upon  completion  of  the  construction  in 
1832.  It  now  hangs  above  the  speaker's 
rostrum  behind  the  American  flag. 

Over  the  years,  Sully's  name  had  become 
somewhat  detached  from  the  painting,  and 


19 


it  was  generally  dismissed  as  "a  copy  after 
Stuart."  Some  thoughtth  at  it  was  executed 
long  after  the  fire.  With  recent  inquiry  and 


6  Parenthetically,  the  commissioning  of  the  important 
State  Fair  Arena  in  Raleigh,  designed  by  the  late 
Matthew  Nowicki  and  completed  in  1953,  is  an  extension 
of  this  early  tradition;  witness  the  acclaim  this  structure 
has  received  from  many  of  the  leading  architects  of 
the  world. 


checking  of  the  records,  (he  painting  will 
begin  to  take  on  new  prominence,  and 
plans  are  afoot  to  have  it  cleaned  and 
re-installed,  since  it  demonstrates  North 
Carolina's  early  interest  in  art  and  the 
determination  of  its  progressive  leaders  to 
seek  out  and  commission  outstanding  artists 
of  (heir  own  time.r' 


'I 


20 


JACOB  MARLING,  EARLY  RALEIGH  PAINTER 
By  Ben  F.  Williams 


Jacob  Marling  came  to  Raleigh  some 
time  before  1813,  for  his  name  is  mentioned 
in  connection  with  the  North  Carolina 
Museum  which  was  established  that  year. 
We  do  not  know  from  where  or  how  old 
he  was  when  he  came.  Raleigh  was  estab- 
lished as  the  Capital  of  North  Carolina  in 
1792.  Construction  of  the  first  State  House 
was  begun  the  same  year  and  completed 
in  1796.  Marling  is  best  known  for  his 
painting  of  the  State  House,  but  like  so 
many  artists  of  that  period,  he  had  more 
than  one  profession  in  order  to  make  his 
living.  The  Museum,  of  which  Marling 
was  director,  added  a  reading  room  in 
1818  and  advertised  in  the  Raleigh  Register — 
"NORTH  CAROLINA  MUSEUM.  This 
establishment  is  now  open  for  the  reception 
of  visitors.  Admittance,  25c.  Ticket  for  the 
year,  $5.00.  As  the  plan  embraces  a  Read- 
ing Room  where  most  of  the  principal 
newspapers,  literary  works,  reviews,  etc. 
are  filed.  It  is  confidently  believed  that  it 
will  afford  an  agreeable  and  useful  place 
of  resort.  Natural  and  artificial  curiosities 
sketches,  maps,  drawings  and  paintings, 
rare  coins  and  books  will  be  thankfully 
received  and  added  to  the  collection,  with 
the  name  of  the  liberal  donor  appended 
to  them.  General  Calvin  Jones  has  oblig- 
ingly transferred  the  whole  of  his  collection 
to  this  institution.  J.  Marling."  1  General 
Calvin  Jones  owned  a  very  large  plantation 
upon  which  now  stands  the  town  of  Wake 
Forest.  His  collection,  along  with  the  other 
collections  at  the  North  Carolina  Museum, 

1  Raleigh  Register,  October  2,  1818. 

2  1819,  Register's  Book  3,  Wake  County,  p.  403. 


were  later  transferred  to  the  University  of 
North  Carolina.  The  preceding  notice 
appeared  in  the  Raleigh  Register  for  several 
years.  The  Museum  contained  paintings 
by  older  artists  as  well  as  some  select 
works  by  the  director  himself. 

Marling's  museum,  or  the  North  Caro- 
lina Museum,  was  moved  from  its  original 
place  and  eventually  situated  at  a  point 
on  Fayetteville  Street  which  is  now  occu- 
pied by  the  Security  National  Bank. 
Marling,  in  negotiation  with  John  Marshall 
and  Joel  Brown,  acquired  the  lot  and 
property  on  January  4,  1819.  "For  and  in 
consideration  of  the  sum  of  $1,750  to  them 
in  hand  paid  by  the  said  Jacob  Marling 
and  Co.  at  and  before  the  sealing  and 
signing  of  these  present  ...  a  lot  situated 
and  being  in  the  city  of  Raleigh,  bounded 
as  follows — beginning  at  the  southwest 
corner  of  lot  114  Martin  and  Fayetteville 
Streets  intersect — north  along  Fayetteville, 
35  feet;  east,  80  feet;  south,  35  feet;  west, 
80  feet  (a  part  of  lot  114)."  2 

Marling  apparently  made  many  negotia- 
tions and  deals  and  was  not  always  wise 
in  monetary  matters,  for  in  1824  his 
property  was  put  up  for  sale  at  auction  in 
lieu  of  taxes.  At  the  same  time  the  lot 
next  to  Marling's  property,  owned  by  Miss 
Susan  Schaub,  was  also  up  for  sale  in  lieu 
of  taxes.  Susan  Schaub  operated  a  public- 
bath  house,  and  according  to  her  adver- 
tisement of  June  13,  1825 — "She  has  avail- 
able warm  and  cold  baths,  informs  her 
old  customers  and  public  generally  that 
her  bathing  establishment  is  now  in  opera- 
tion and  open  for  visitors.  Regular  bathing 


21 


22 


days  are  Tuesday,  Thursday,  and  Saturday, 
but  if  two  hours  notice  be  given,  warm 
baths  can  be  had  any  time."  3  She  also 
had  rooms  for  rent  to  transients  and  short- 
time  residents. 

After  Marling's  difficulty  with  his 
Fayetteville  Street  property,  he  took  rooms 
with  John  Goneke,  whose  establishment 
contained  a  concert  hall,  a  theatre,  a 
reading  room,  a  liquor  shop  in  which  one 
was  able  to  purchase  27  different  kinds  of 
liquor,  a  musical  instrument  shop,  rooms 
for  members  of  the  legislature  and  various 
other  conveniences  for  the  comfort  and 
entertainment  of  the  citizenry  and  guests 
of  the  city.  Judging  from  other  references 
to  Marling's  gregarious  character,  he  must 
have  found  Goneke's  establishment  much 
more  to  his  liking  than  his  own,  for  it  is 
recorded  that  Marling  and  his  friends 
often  entertained  themselves  at  cards  until 
very  early  in  the  morning.  It  seems  that 
Marling  was  often  on  the  losing  end  of 
these  games  and  would  slip  out  around 
two  A.M.  saying  that  Mrs.  Marling  would 
be  waiting  dinner. 

After  Marling  had  established  himself  at 
Goneke's,  he  published  the  following  notice 
-"PORTRAIT  AND  MINIATURE 
PAINTINGS.  Ladies  and  gentlemen  who 
may  wish  their  portrait  or  miniature  taken 
shall  have  them  well  executed,  on  moderate 
terms.  Those  who  wish  to  see  examples  of 
his  paintings  can  see  a  variety  of  pieces 
at  Mr.  Goneke's  concert  hall."  4 

Louisa  Marling,  wife  of  Jacob,  was 
teaching  in  the  Raleigh  Academy  in  1824. 

3  Raleigh  Register  and  N.  C.  Gazette,  June  13,  1825. 

4  Raleigh  Register,  November  12,  1824. 

0  Charles  L.  Coon,  North  Carolina  Schools  and  Academies, 
1798-1840,  xiv. 

6  Raleigh  Register,  June  9,  1820. 


The  Raleigh  Academy,  which  was  estab- 
lished in  1800,  had  had  several  art  teachers. 
In  1 808  T.  Sambourne  and  wife  came  from 
Philadelphia  and  taught  music,  drawing 
and  painting  (which  they  had  studied  in 
England).''  Under  the  Rev.  Mr.  McPeters 
a  number  of  courses  were  available  besides 
courses  in  Latin  and  Greek,  mathematics, 
natural  philosophy,  astronomy,  rhetoric, 
logic,  moral  philosophy,  and  chemistry; 
drawing,  painting  and  embroidery  were 
offered  for  $15  additional  tuition.  The 
courses  and  quality  of  instruction  com- 
pared favorably  with  the  well-established 
Fayetteville  Academy,  Warrenton  Female 
Academy  and  the  Oxford  Academy,  al- 
though tuition  rates  in  Raleigh  were 
slightly  higher.  In  addition  to  Mrs.  Mar- 
ling's classes  at  the  Academy,  credit  was 
given  to  students  who  studied  painting 
with  her  individually.  In  June  1820  the 
following  announcement  appeared:  "The 
following  young  ladies,  pupils  of  Mrs. 
Marling,  to  wit. — Catherine  Clark,  Mary- 
Ann  Clark,  Adeline  Allison,  Margaret 
Allison,  Eliza  Lane,  Martha  Branch,  Ann 
Fort,  Rebecca  Branch,  and  Julie  Sanders, 
exhibited  a  great  variety  of  flowers  in  pots 
and  grapes,  executed  with  a  great  deal  of 
taste  and  beauty.  ...  A  landscape  by  Miss 
Ann  Fort  is  entitled  to  particular  distinc- 
tion. Miss  Sanders  is  a  promising  young 
artist."  6 

In  1820  Mrs.  Marling  submitted  the 
following  notice:  "Mrs.  Marling,  grateful 
for  the  patronage  she  has  received  as  a 
teacher  of  drawing  and  painting,  solicits  a 
continuance  of  that  patronage  of  which 
she  flatters  herself,  she  will  be  found 
deserving  particularly  as  Mr.  Marling  will 


in  the  future  assist  her  in  the  tuition  or 
her  pupils."  7 

The  Marlings  were  by  no  means  the 
only  artists  in  Raleigh  in  the  1820's.  In 
December  1825  the  following  advertisement 
appeared:  "PORTRAIT  PAINTING. 
James  McGibbon  takes  the  liberty  to 
inform  the  ladies  and  gentlemen  of  Raleigh 
and  its  vicinity,  that  his  painting  room  is 
at  Miss  Susan  Schaub's,  Fayetteville  St., 
where  specimens  of  his  execution  may  be 
seen  and  orders  executed  on  the  most 
reasonable  terms."  8  A  Mr.  Jefferson,  who 
had  just  completed  the  sets  and  decoration 
for  the  New  Raleigh  Theatre,  lived  in  the 
city  for  a  while.  The  Raleigh  Star  stated 
that  he  was  the  most  eminent  in  his  pro- 
fession in  this  country  and  that  his  work 
was  unrivaled  in  splendor  and  tasty  exe- 
cution. Most  of  the  known  artists  in  this 
section  of  the  country  at  this  time  were 
itinerant,  and  Jacob  Marling  seems  to  be 
the  only  one  who  took  up  permanent 
residence. 

From  1825  there  seems  to  have  been  a 
great  up-surge  of  interest  in  art  in  Raleigh. 
Marling  was  successful  in  his  painting;  he 
received  many  commissions  and  executed 
a  number  of  portraits  of  members  of  the 
legislature.  Cultural  activity  revolved 
around  J.  F.  Goneke's  concert  hall,  and 
the  addition  of  Mr.  Richard's  day  and 
night  dancing  school  in  the  long  room  made 
it  even  more  lively. 

The  newspapers,  The  Star,  The  Raleigh 
Register  and  The  Halter,  carried  regular  art 
articles.  On  May  27,  1825,  there  appeared 

7  Star,  June  2,  1820. 

8  Raleigh  Register  and  N.  C.  Gazette,  December  15,  1825. 

9  Raleigh  Register  and  N.  C.  Gazette,  May  27,  1825. 

10  Raleigh  Register  and  N.  C.  Gazette,  November  8,  1825. 

11  Raleigh  Register  and  N.  C.  Gazette,  November  23, 
1825. 


in  the  press  a  notice  that  the  large  equestrian 
portrait  of  Washington  by  Rembrandt 
Pealc  was  in  the  Baltimore  Museum 
preparatory  to  its  transmission  to  the 
Capitol  in  Washington.9  There  was  refer- 
ence to  the  large  standing  portrait  of 
Washington  by  Thomas  Sully  in  our  own 
Capitol  and  the  marble  portrait  of  Washing- 
ton by  Antonio  Canova  which  was  placed 
in  the  rotunda  of  the  Capitol  and,  above 
all,  elaborate  descriptions  of  Lafayette's 
visit  to  Raleigh.  The  state  went  to  great 
expense  to  celebrate  the  occasion  of  his 
visit  and  the  whole  city  was  in  topnotch 
condition  to  receive  him.10  Even  the  local 
press  suspended  publication  so  that  every- 
one could  attend  the  festivities.  Goneke 
inserted  the  advertisement  announcing  that 
"in  addition  to  a  large  and  general  assort- 
ment of  confectionary,  cordial,  wines,  etc. 
with  articles  previously  in  store,  forms  the 
most  complete  establishment  of  the  kind 
ever  erected  in  this  place.  Also  has  re- 
ceived and  will  keep  constantly  on  hand, 
a  variety  of  musical  instruments  and  a 
large  quantity  of  the  latest  and  most 
fashionable  music.  Rooms  for  parties,  23 
kinds  of  alcoholic  drinks,  candy,  con- 
fections, toys,  playing  cards,  nine  musical 
instruments  and  parts."  11 

It  was  about  this  time  that  Marling  did 
his  best  known  painting,  a  landscape  of 
the  North  Carolina  State  House  after  its 
restoration  showing  the  added  porticos. 
.  .  .  "Marlin  [sic],  a  portrait  painter  of 
Raleigh  in  the  1820's,  painted  an  excellent 
picture  of  the  State  House  after  its  reno- 
vations in  1820.  He  shows  the  fireproof 
building  erected  by  Edmund  Lane  in  1819 
as  a  one-story  [sic]  house  whose  front  door 
was  evidently  a  few  feet  north  of  the  present 


24 


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bronze  stature  [sic]  of  George  Washington 
just  south  of  the  Fayetteville  Street  entrance 
to  the  State  House."  12  The  remodeling 
program  started  around  1818  and  was  not 
entirely  completed  until  1825.  The  painting, 
like  most  of  Marling's  works,  is  coloristically 
very  fine.  The  scene  is  painted  from  a 
point  where  Christ  Church  now  stands 
and  shows  early  morning  sunlight  falling 
on  the  building.  Originally  built  in  the 
1790's,  it  was  a  two-story  undecorated  red 
brick  rectangular  building  with  a  simple 
hip  roof  and  a  third  story  attic  indicated. 
Because  the  structure  was  unsound  and 
because  of  the  addition  of  the  Canova 
statue  and  other  works  of  art,  the  building 
was  remodeled  in  the  early  '20's.  A  portico 
with  pilaster  columns  running  from  the 
first  floor  to  the  second  floor  were  added 
to  the  east  and  west  facades.  A  dome  was 
added  over  the  center  of  the  building  and 
this  was  capped  with  a  small  Greco- 
Roman  temple-like  structure.  The  porticos 
rest  upon  a  gray  stone  base  which  continues 
from  the  ground  to  the  beginning  of  the 
second  floor.  The  restoration  of  the  Capitol 
added  stucco  of  an  earth-yellow  color 
to  the  existing  old  section  of  the  building. 
The  small  building  to  the  left  of  the 
Capitol  in  Marling's  painting  (Fig.  1)  is 
the  governor's  office.  The  other  buildings 
are  on  Fayetteville  Street  and,  as  one  can 
see,  they  are  handsomely  proportioned 
structures  within  garden  walls.  One  can 
easily  imagine  that  some  of  the  figures  in 
the  painting  are  members  of  the  legislature 
or  other  government  officials;  men  and 
women  coming  and  going,  two  young 
Negroes  playing  on  the  grass  and  another 

"  Charles  M.  Heck,  Comp.,  Documents  of  Early  North 
Carolina  and  the  Establishment  of  Raleigh  as  Its  Capital 
(1952),  Plate  IX. 


Negro  carrying  a  bundle  upon  her  head. 
The  trees  around  the  Capitol  seem  to  be 
rather  young.  The  entire  painting  is  well 
delineated  and  does  not  contain  the  brown 
and  blackish  tones  often  associated  with 
regional  paintings  of  this  period.  Although 
the  painting  is  not  signed,  it  is  well  docu- 
mented through  records  of  ownership. 
Marling's  portraits,  as  well  as  his  land- 
scapes, depend  greatly  upon  line. 

The  portrait  of  John  S.  Haywod  (Fig.  2) 
shows  the  subject  as  a  young  man.  The 
painting  is  simple  and  direct  in  execution 
and  again  all  areas  are  very  expertly 
related  in  color.  The  painting,  although 
a  little  light  in  treatment,  is  expertly  com- 
posed. Again  this  portrait  is  unsigned  but 
can  be  stylistically  attributed  without  any 
doubt  to  Marling. 

Of  the  three  portraits  used  in  this  article, 
the  most  interesting  is  probably  the  portrait 
of  John  Gray  Blount  (Fig.  4).  This  painting 
shows  a  man  past  middle  age  in  a  short 
waistcoat  type  of  coat,  a  vest  and  a  high 
collar.  He  holds  in  his  left  hand  a  bright  blue 
book  inscribed  on  the  front  "No.  4,  Papers 
on  Agriculture,  1829."  Blount  looks  as  if 
he  has  just  finished  reading  from  the  papers, 
pushed  his  spectacles  above  his  forehead 
and  glanced  toward  the  spectator.  His  hair 
is  slightly  longer  than  that  of  the  fashion  of 
the  day  and  his  right  hand  firmly  clutches 
the  arm  of  the  chair.  The  modeling  of  the 
face  is  extremely  well  executed.  The  firm- 
ness of  the  treatment,  the  drawing  of  the 
chin  and  nose,  is  done  with  the  skill  of  an 
expert  artist.  The  relationship  of  colors  in 
this  painting  brings  it  out  of  the  category 
of  genre  and  folk  art  and  presents  it  as  the 
work  of  a  mature  artist. 

The  painting  of  W.  A.  Blount  (Fig.  3) 


26 


Fig.  4.  Jacob  Marling,  John  Gray  Blount  (1752-1833).  Painted  in  1829.  Canvas,  40  x  33  inches. 
Blount  Collection,  Hall  of  History,  Raleigh. 


27 


is  less  successful  than  the  one  just  described, 
but  shows  a  wonderful  feeling  for  arrange- 
ment and  color.  The  costume,  although 
black,  is  full  of  definite  and  crisp  modeling. 
The  chair,  the  same  one  that  appears  in 
the  other  portraits,  is  a  sharp  canary 
yellow. 

In  these  three  portraits  Marling  has 
portrayed  a  young  man,  a  middle-aged 
man  and  an  old  man,  so  well  that  one  can 
almost  guess  their  ages. 

We  know  Marling  did  portraits  of 
women.  A  painting  called  "The  May 
Queen"  and  other  works  by  Marling  were 
found  in  the  possession  of  Mrs.  Marling 
upon  her  death.  Thus  far  I  have  been 
unable  to  locate  any  of  the  paintings  of 
women.  It  is  assumed  that  "The  May 
Queen"  portrait  represents  the  May  Queen 
of  Mrs.  Marling's  school  and  must  have 
been  painted  some  time  during  or  after 
1826. 

In  1826  Mrs.  Marling  advertised— 
"DRAWING  AND  PAINTING  SCHOOL. 
Mrs.  Marling  will  teach  drawing  and 
painting  on  velvet,  paper  and  satin  at  her 
usual  terms  of  tuition  to  commence  the 
first  of  January.  N.  B.  Portrait  and  minia- 
ture painting  by  Jacob  Marling."  13 

Descriptions  of  the  May  Day  exercises 
were  very  elaborate  and  settings  and 
decorations  were  described  in  full.  The 
May  Day  exercises  at  the  Raleigh  Academy 
in  1826  included  an  exhibition  of  trans- 
parencies which  were  paintings  on  paper 
or  gauze  lighted  from  the  back.  These 
decorations  were  most  likely  painted  by 
the  Marlings. 


n  Raleigh  Register,  December  22,  1826. 
'■'  Raleigh  Register,  November  18,  1830. 
15  Raleigh  Register,  September  9,  1830. 


In  addition  to  her  private  classes  and 
duties  at  the  Academy,  Mrs.  Marling 
attached  herself  to  a  millinery  firm  on  a 
part-time  basis.  She  probably  worked  for 
a  Miss  Henderson  who  for  some  reason 
had,  according  to  advertisements,  been 
trying  to  sell  her  establishment  for  several 
years. 

Marling's  most  prolific  years  were  from 
1827  to  1831.  He  advertised— "POR- 
TRAIT AND  MINIATURE  PAINTING. 
The  subscriber  will  pay  particular  attention 
to  those  who  may  wish  to  encourage  him 
in  the  above  painting.  Gentlemen  in  the 
legislature  who  may  wish  their  portraits 
or  miniatures  painted  will  please  call 
early.  If  they  do  so,  the  subscriber  will 
ensure  a  good  likeness  and  painting, 
having  the  whole  session  to  execute  the 
work.  N.  B.  Ladies  and  gentlemen  will 
please  call  at  his  residence  where  they 
can  see  a  variety  of  paintings.  J.  Marling."  14 
Mrs.  Marling  also  did  well.  She  adver- 
tised—"DRAWING  AND  PAINTING 
SCHOOL  FOR  YOUNG  LADIES.  Mrs. 
Marling  has  commenced  her  school  where 
she  now  resides  and  will  give  lessons  on 
paper,  velvet,  satin,  etc.  Terms  for  drawing 
and  painting  on  paper  and  on  velvet, 
twenty  lessons— $6.00."  15 

In  1831  Marling  witnessed  the  burning 
of  the  old  State  House  and  realized  that 
his  painting  remained  the  best  documen- 
tary evidence  of  its  existence  and  the  only 
pictorial  one. 

Marling  died  on  December  18,  1833. 
His  obituary  read:  "In  this  city  on  the 
18th  instant  after  a  long  and  painful  illness. 
Mr.  Jacob  Marling,  whose  fine  taste  and 
skill  as  a  portrait  and  landscape  painter, 
are  extensively  known;  aged  about  sixty 


2'C 


years;  leaving"  a  widow  and  numerous 
friends  to  lament  his  loss."  16 

Several  years  after  Marling's  death,  a 
group  of  friends  erected  a  tombstone  to 
his  memory.  This  monument  was  in  evi- 
dence a  few  short  years  ago,  but  after 
looking  carefully  through  the  old  Raleigh 
cemetery,  I  have  not  been  able  to  find  it. 

After  her  husband's  death,  Mrs.  Marling 
took  over  a  millinery  business,  and  the 
only  other  reference   to   Mrs.  Marling's 

10  Raleigh  Register,  December  24,  1833. 


professional  activities  I  have  been  able  to 
uncover  is  that  she  provided  lamp  shades 
for  the  newly  installed  chandeliers  for  the 
new  State  Capitol  in  the  early  1840's. 
Mrs.  Marling  lived  until  after  the  Civil 
War  and  was  active  in  the  millinery  business 
until  old  age  forced  her  retirement.  I  have 
been  unable  to  locate  the  paintings  by- 
Marling  which  she  had  at  the  time  of  her 
death.  Perhaps  in  some  Raleigh  attic  or 
basement  some  of  his  crisply  delineated 
works  may  yet  be  found. 


li- 
es 
t 


29 


30 


EXHIBITION  OF  PAINTINGS  BY  ENRIQUE  MONTENEGRO1 


By  J  ames  B.  Byrnes 


It  is  the  general  practice  for  larger 
museums  to  restrict  one-man  exhibitions  to 
artists  who  enjoy  international  fame  and 
reputation;  however,  each  institution  has 
the  obligation  to  set  aside  the  rules  occasion- 
ally where  an  important  younger  artist  is 
concerned,  particularly  when  he  is  teaching 
and  living  in  the  region.  Therefore,  this 
museum  was  pleased  to  present  as  its  first 
one-man  exhibition  the  paintings  of  Enrique 
Montenegro,  an  artist  who  has  achieved 
some  recognition  and  who  shows  great 
promise  for  the  future. 

Montenegro  was  born  in  Valparaiso, 
Chile,  December  7,  1917.  At  the  age  of 
nineteen  he  travelled  to  the  United  States, 
where  he  earned  his  B.F.A.  at  the  University 
of  Florida  in  1944.  After  graduating  he  was 
awarded  a  scholarship  to  the  Arts  Students' 
League  in  New  York,  and  the  following 
year  he  joined  the  faculty  of  the  University 
of  New  Mexico,  where  he  was  an  instructor 
in  art  for  five  years.  In  1951  he  moved  to 
Colorado,  where  he  taught  at  the  Denver 
Art  Museum;  there  he  was  accorded  a 
one-man  exhibition.  In  1956  Montenegro 
was  awarded  the  Catherwood  Foundation, 
Scholarship  which  he  used  to  travel  in 
Europe.  This  past  year  he  was  on  the  Staff 
of  the  School  of  Design,  North  Carolina 
State  College. 

In  reviewing  Montenegro's  earlier  ex- 
hibitions, critics  described  him  as  a 
"nonobjective"  or  "abstract  expressionist" 
painter  meaning  that  the  source  of  his 
painting  was  not  easily  grasped  through 

1  Reprinted  and  revised  from  the  checklist  of  the 
exhibition,  "Paintings  by  Enrique  Montenegro,"  August 
8  to  September  24,  1957. 


recognizable  symbols.  Unfortunately,  the 
enormous  interest  in  twentieth  century  art 
and  the  consequent  need  to  write  about  it 
has  inclined  some  writers  to  overdo  t he- 
popular  practice  of  assigning  artists  to 
schools  or  movements  instead  of  concen- 
trating on  the  fundamental  quality  of  an 
artist — that  of  creative  originality.  Thus, 
when  an  artist  veers  from  the  mainstream, 
in  this  case  non-objective  painting,  partisans 
of  one  school  or  another  regard  his  efforts 
as  a  trend.  To  the  prejudiced  abstractionist, 
any  hint  of  recognizable  subject  theme 
becomes  an  abandonment  of  the  cause  of 
purity.  Those  who  know  little  and  sympa- 
thize less  with  the  whole  of  modern  art, 
immediately  cry  "I  told  you  so,"  insisting 
that  art  is  returning  to  sanity  and  so-called 
tradition.  Thus,  for  these  groups,  this 
exhibition  probably  served  as  a  bellwether, 
but  for  those  who  can  go  beyond  the  super- 
ficiality of  mode  and  appearance  there  was 
to  be  found  in  Montenegro's  work  a 
genuine  original  expression  summarizing 
his  response  to  things  felt  or  experienced. 

An  artist  of  strong  passion,  Montenegro 
in  his  canvases  of  the  past  three  or  four 
years  has  permitted  the  subject  to  emerge 
through  more  descriptive  forms — forms 
which  he  has  not  allowed  to  dominate  his 
interest  but  has  used  as  vehicles  for  ex- 
pressive purposes. 

As  one  toured  the  exhibition,  one  could 
see  Montenegro's  understanding  of  his 
heritage  as  an  artist;  the  knowledge  he 
gained  as  a  teacher  was  evident  in  certain 
canvases,  principally  those  of  more  recent 
time.  Also,  it  became  clear  that  the  masters 


31 


of  the  past  whom  Montenegro  admires 
most  are  Goya,  Hals,  and  El  Greco,  and 
of  the  present,  Soutine,  DeKooning,  Pol- 
lock, and  the  late  Mexican  artist,  Jose 
Clemente  Orozco.  It  is  easier  to  relate 
Montenegro  to  Orozco  since  both  come 
from  a  herce  passionate  Spanish  heritage 
nourished  in  the  region  of  great  Indian 
civilizations  of  the  past. 

But  there  the  analogy  must  end,  for 
Orozco  was  frequently  a  regional  artist 
concerned  with  large  social  themes  and 
was  prone  to  preach.  In  contrast,  Monte- 
negro rarely  uses  grouped  figures  and 
where  he  does,  each  is  invariably  an  indi- 
vidual separated  from  the  other  by  a  kind 
of  lonesome  aura,  engaged  in  a  personal 
world. 

Montenegro  describes  his  work  as  enig- 
matic, suggesting  that  each  canvas  infers 
a  subject  but  that  the  real  meaning  of  the 
objects  is  never  quite  spelled  out  but  must 
be  sought  in  the  undertones.  In  many  of 
his  canvases,  one  feels  something  of  a 
catastrophic  nature,  as  though  the  artist 
created  each  work  with  an  anxious  fury  so 
as  to  release  an  intense  inner  pressure.  His 
painting  has  been  compared  to  the  poetry 
of  his  Chilean  countrywoman,  the  late 
Gabriela  Mistral,  whose  prefatory  remarks 
in  a  volume  of  her  poetry  began  with  these 
words:  "God  forgive  me  this  bitter  book, 
and  may  those  who  feel  life  to  be  sweet 
forgive  me,  too."  2 

As  an  example,  the  canvas  titled  "Chair" 
suggests  an  interior  with  a  lightbulb  and 
a  chair-like  form  which  on  close  scrutiny 
evokes  the  image  of  a  headless  mute  figure. 
The  sense  of  disquietude  is  increased  in  the 

2  Gabriela  Mistral,  Desolation,  Instituto  de  los  Espanos, 
1922. 


choice  of  title  in  the  canvas  "Dark  Appa- 
rition" (Fig.  1)  in  which  a  figure  emerges 
with  a  haunting,  spectral  insistence,  creating 
a  sense  of  the  hallucinatory  not  unlike  the 
scream-like  silence  one  finds  in  the  work  of 
the  English  contemporary,  Francis  Bacon. 
Two  late  canvases  suggest  a  more  lyrical 
state  of  mind — "Woman  with  Dog  in 
Landscape"  shows  a  calm,  almost  classic, 
seated  female  figure  set  in  a  bright,  cheerful 
landscape  with  a  dog  rolling  on  its  back 
expressing  its  joy  of  life  through  this  simple 
act.  The  monumental  frontal  figure  and  the 
freedom  of  the  dog,  the  sure  outline  quality 
of  the  drawing  and  crispness  of  the  color, 
all  combine  to  recall  the  work  of  Manet; 
yet,  the  abruptness  of  the  deep-spaced 
landscape  and  the  slashing  application  of 
pigment  are  unmistakably  Montenegro's 
own.  Of  the  same  time  is  "Standing  Figure" 
(Fig.  2),  with  its  shimmering  tonal  quality 
reminiscent  of  Vermeer.  A  female  figure 
stands  beside  a  telephone  which  seems  to 
be  at  gentle  rest;  with  bands  folded,  she 
appears  to  await  the  inevitable  ring  bring- 
ing a  message  already  known. 

In  spite  of  the  figurative  and  thematic 
quality  of  many  of  Montenegro's  canvases, 
he  cannot  be  considered  a  literary  painter 
who  chooses  associational  material  with 
which  to  display  a  talent;  instead,  one 
finds  that  in  each  painting  he  adds  the 
dimension  of  his  personality:  his  reaction 
to  the  intensity  of  the  creative  act  without 
too  much  regard  for  the  clarity  or  obscurity 
of  the  subject  itself.  Yet,  there  is  an  over-all 
subject  evident  in  his  canvases;  some  may 
prefer  to  call  it  content  rather  than  subject 
— it  is  the  intense  drama  of  love  and  hate, 
tenderness  and  tragedy,  and  their  absolute 
inseparableness  from  life. 


32 


Fig.  2.  Enrique  Montenegro  (American  contemporary),  Standing  Figure.  1957.  Oil  on  canvas, 
48^2  x  45  inches.  Lent  by  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Fred  Olsen,  Guilford,  Connecticut. 


Hans  Brosamer  (German,  about  1500-about  1554),  Portrait  of  a  Gentleman. 
Panel,  18^8  x  12  inches.  Exhibited,  New  York  World's  Fair,  1939.  Gift  of  Mrs. 
Arthur  Lehman,  New  York. 


EXHIBITION  CALENDAR 


OCTOBER  and  NOVEMBER  "THE  MOTHER  AND  CHILD  THEME  IN  ART." 
A  specially  arranged  exhibition  by  the  Museum  of  some  fifty  paintings  and  sculp- 
tures. The  core  of  this  exhibition  will  be  a  number  of  works  from  the  Museum's 
own  collection;  other  items  will  be  borrowed  from  public  and  private  collections  through- 
out the  country.  The  exhibition  will  trace  the  mother  and  child  theme  in  art  through 
history,  from  its  beginning  to  the  present.  From  the  Museum's  own  collection,  paintings 
by  Berlinghiero  Berlinghieri,  Guido  Reni,  Del  Sarto,  Cima,  Rubens,  and  Van  Dyck  will 
be  featured.  A  catalogue  for  the  exhibition  is  contemplated.  Opening  dates  to  be  announced. 

NOVEMBER  5  through  NOVEMBER  24.  "THE  LITTLE  INTERNATIONAL 
EXHIBITION."  A  special  exhibition  travelling  under  the  auspices  of  the  Olsen  Founda- 
tion featuring  the  works  of  contemporary  painters  throughout  the  world.  This  exhibition 
made  up  of  smaller  canvases  surveys  the  impact  of  abstract  painting  on  the  world  today. 
IThis  show  will  open  in  the  Museum  and  will  be  available  for  a  limited  number  of  bookings 
to  other  art  centers  and  colleges  throughout  the  state  without  charge.  This  is  the  first 
in  a  series  of  exhibitions  offered  by  the  Olsen  Foundation  which  will  be  available  from 
jtime  to  time  on  the  same  basis. 

IDECEMBER  4  through  DECEMBER  29.  "NORTH  CAROLINA  ARTISTS'  EXHI- 
iBITION."  An  annual  exhibition  sponsored  by  the  North  Carolina  State  Art  Society 
iopen  to  native  North  Carolinians  and  to  other  artists  who  have  lived  in  the  state  for  the 
Itwelve  months  immediately  preceding  October  1957,  or  for  a  period  of  five  years  at  some 
other  time.  The  exhibition  will  be  judged  by  a  panel  of  experts  invited  from  outside  the 
state.  One  thousand  dollars  is  made  available  in  order  to  acquire  some  of  the  prize  works 
through  Art  Society  purchase.  This  exhibition  will  be  previewed  by  those  attending  the 
annual  Art  Society  meeting  on  December  4. 

DECEMBER  4  through  DECEMBER  29.  "TOMLIN  MEMORIAL  EXHIBITION." 
An  exhibition  of  paintings  by  the  late  Bradley  Walker  Tomlin  (1899-1953),  distinguished 
American  contemporary  artist.  This  exhibition  is  being  shared  with  the  University  of 
California  at  Los  Angeles. 

jDuring  the  fall  and  winter  seasons,  the  Museum  plans  to  present  exhibitions  of  decorative 
sirts,  contemporary  design,  and  a  few  special  lectures,  the  details  for  which  will  be  an- 
nounced in  the  local  press. 


THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  STATE  ART  SOCIETY 


The  North  Carolina  State  Art  Society  invites  those  interested  in  the  promotion  of  art 
in  North  Carolina  to  become  members  of  the  Society.  Membership  is  renewable  each 
year  on  the  anniversary  of  the  date  a  member  joins. 


APPLICATION  FOR  MEMBERSHIP 

Date.  . 


19 


Name 
Street . 
City .  . 


State 


CHECK  ONE  BELOW: 

Annual  '  $  5.00  □ 

Contributor                                  10.00  □ 

Sustaining                                    25.00  lJ 

Patron                                        50.00  □ 

Life  100.00  □ 


CHECK  ONE  BELOW: 

Donor  $   500.00  □ 

Benefactor  1,000.00  □ 

New  Member   CD 

Renewal   O 

Your  cancelled  check  is  your  receipt. 


All  memberships  are  individual.  Group  and  corporate  memberships  start  at  $10.00 
Mail  Application  To:  The  State  Art  Society,  North  Carolina  Museum  of  Art,  Raleigh 
N.  C. 

Please  list  below  the  names  and  addresses  of  anyone  who  might  be  interested  in  joining 
the  State  Art  Society. 

Name  

Street  and  Number  

City  and  State  

Name  

Street  and  Number  

City  and  State  

Name  

Street  and  Number  

City  and  State  

Name  

Street  and  Number  '  

City  and  State  


THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  MUSUEM  OF  ART 


Officers  and  Board  of  Directors  of  the  State  Art  Society 

Governor  Luther  H.  Hodges  Honorary  President 

Mr.  Robert  Lee  Humber  President 

Mr.  Edwin  Gill  Vice-President 

Mrs.  James  H.  Cordon  Treasurer 

Vice-Presidents  at  Large  Elected 

Mrs.  Frank  Taylor  Dr.  Clarence  Poe 

Mrs.  Jacques  Busbee  Mrs.  Isabelle  Henderson 

Mr.  John  V.  Allcott  Dr.  Clemens  Sommer 

Mr.  Egbert  L.  Davis,  Jr. 

Appointed  by  the  Governor  Mr.  Henry  L.  Bridges 

Dr.  Sylvester  Green  Mr.  Gregory  Ivy 

Mrs.  Charles  Cannon  Mrs.  J.  H.  B.  Moore 

Mr.  Ralph  C.  Price  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Hamrick  Mack 

Ex  Officio 

Hon.  Luther  H.  Hodges  Governor  of  North  Carolina 

Dr.  Charles  M.  Carroll  State  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction 

Mr.  George  B.  Patton  Attorney  General 

Mrs.  C.  B.  Clegg  Art  Chairman,  North  Carolina  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs 

Staff  of  the  Museum 

Dr.  W.  R.  Valentiner  Director 

James  B.  Byrnes  Associate  Director 

Ben  F.  Williams  Curator 

May  Davis  Hill  Librarian  and  Registrar 

William  T.  Beckwith  Budget  Officer 

Peggy  Jo  Kirby  Secretary  to  Director 

Peggy  Noblin  Secretary 

Edith  Johnson  Sales  Desk 

William  A.  Weathersby  Library  Assistant 

Mary  Jerman  Panton  Information  Assistant 

Frank  L.  Manly  Museum  Technician 

Branton  L.  Olive  Packer  and  Shipper 

James  R.  Hampton  Head  Museum  Guard 

Information 

Hours:  Open  Tuesdays  through  Saturdays  10-5;  Sundays  2-6;  Closed  Mondays,  and 
-  legal  holidays. 

[Telephone:    TE  4-3611,  Ext.  7569. 
Tours:    May  be  scheduled  upon  advance  written  request. 

Membership  in  the  North  Carolina  State  Art  Society:  Annual  $5.00;  Contributor 
I $10.00;  Sustaining  $25.00;  Patron  $50.00;  Life  $100.00;  Donor  $500.00;  Benefactor 
$1,000.00. 

All  gifts  to  the  Museum,  whether  of  objects  or  money,  are  tax  deductible.  Names  of 
donors  are  permanently  attached  to  objects  purchased  with  donated  funds. 


The  North  Carolina  Museum  of  Art 

RALEIGH,  NORTH  CAROLINA 


NON-PROFIT  ORG. 
U.  S.  POSTAGE 

PAI  D 

RALEIGH,  N.  C. 
Permit  No.  453 


North  Carolina  State  Library 
Technical  Service  Division 
Box  2339 

Raleigh,  N.  C.  4  copies 


THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  MUSEUM  OF  ART 

BULLETIN 


Volume  I  Winter  1957/ Spring  1958  Numbers  4  and  5 


CONTENTS 

Lodovico  Carracci's  Assumption  of  the  Virgin   1 

By  Minerva  Pinnell 

Two  Portraits  of  the  Jacobean  Period   8 

By  W.  R.  Valentiner 

Critical  Remarks  on  the  Work  of  Agostino  Cornacchini   13 

By  Herbert  Keutner 

A  Visit  to  Possagno   23 

By  Ben  F.  Williams 

Coptic  Textiles   33 

By  Adele  Coulin  Weibel 

Some  Recent  Accessions  of  Twentieth  Century  Painting   41 

By  James  B.  Byrnes 


Cover:  Lodovico  Carracci  (Italian,  1555-1619),  Assumption  of  the  Virgin.  About  1588. 
Canvas,  height  963^  inches,  width  53  inches.  Gift  of  Mrs.  J.  L.  Dorminy,  Raleigh,  in 
memory  of  her  husband. 


The  North  Carolina  Museum  of  Art  Bulletin  is  published  quarterly.  Copyright,  1957,  by  the  North  Carolina  Museum 
of  Art,  107  East  Morgan  Street,  Raleigh,  North  Carolina.  Subscriptions  $1.00  a  year.  Single  copies  $.25.  Sent  free 
to  North  Carolina  State  Art  Society  members.  Four  weeks'  notice  required  for  change  of  address. 


LODOVICO  CARRACCI'S  ASSUMPTION  OF  THE  VIRGIN 


By  Minerva  Pinnell 


One  of  the  most  impressive  examples  of 
early  Baroque  painting  in  this  country  is 
the  altarpiece  by  the  Bolognese  master, 
Lodovico  Carracci  (1555-1619),  of  the 
"Assumption  of  the  Virgin,"  a  gift  of  Mrs. 
J.  L.  Dorminy  to  the  North  Carolina  Mu- 
seum of  Art  at  Raleigh.*  The  monumental 
painting,  measuring  963^  by  53  inches,  was 
formerly  in  the  collection  of  the  Marquis 
of  Abercorn,  whose  mark  is  imprinted  on 
the  stretcher.  It  is  an  important  work, 
representative  of  the  artist's  style  in  his 
early  maturity.  In  addition,  it  is  notable 
in  its  revelation  of  a  new  interpretation  of 
religious  imagery  influenced  by  ecclesi- 
astical authorities  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  after  the  Tridentine  controversy 
concluded  in  1563. 

Lodovico  Carracci  and  his  two  cousins, 
Agostino  (1557-1602)  and  Annibale  Car- 
racci (1560-1609),  founded  their  academy 
of  painting,  the  Accademia  degli  Incamminati, 
at  Bologna  in  1585-86.  In  their  teaching 
they  advocated  a  return  to  direct  study  of 
nature  and  through  their  forceful  influence 
were  instrumental  in  setting  up  reaction 
against  the  abstract  tendencies  predomi- 
nant in  European  art  after  1520.  It  is 
from  this  crucial  period  of  transformation 
that  Lodovico's  altarpiece  of  the  "Assump- 
tion of  the  Virgin"  comes,  occupying  a 
pivotal  position  between  the  old  and  the 
new. 

The  Carracci  treated  the  theme  of  the 
"Assumption  of  the  Virgin"  repeatedly, 
and  their  contributions  established  proto- 


*  See  cover, 


types  to  which  reference  was  made  by 
many  artists  in  the  succeeding  centuries. 
Following  the  Council  of  Trent  renewed 
interest  in  the  cult  of  the  Virgin  arose  and 
such  impetus  brought  about  increased 
attention  to  the  subject  which  was  repre- 
sentative of  supreme  glorification  of  the 
Mother  of  God.  Interpretations  by  the 
Carracci  betray  strong  influence  from 
churchmen  who  clarified  the  position  of 
the  Church  relative  to  the  function  of  art 
as  an  object  of  edification  instead  of  as 
merely  a  decorative  accessory.  In  the 
latter  part  of  the  sixteenth  century  the 
bond  between  painting  and  religion  became 
more  firmly  secured  than  had  been  the 
case  since  the  Middle  Ages. 

The  Bolognese  school  continued  the 
iconographic  juxtaposition  of  the  scene  of 
the  apostles'  discovery  of  the  empty  tomb 
of  the  Virgin  and  that  of  her  triumphal 
transportation  into  the  celestial  realm.  A 
great  variety  of  expressive  sentiment  is 
found,  particularly  in  the  painting  of 
Lodovico  and  Annibale  Carracci.  In  the 
comparison  between  Lodovico's  altarpiece 
at  Raleigh  and  Annibale's  version  of  1587 
for  the  church  of  San  Rocco  at  Reggio 
Emilia,  now  in  Dresden,  a  more  didactic 
quality  is  discernible  in  the  former  painting. 
Likewise,  Lodovico's  handling  of  the  theme 
in  1601  for  the  church  of  Corpus  Domini  at 
Bologna  and  his  further  modification  of  it 
in  the  interest  of  even  greater  moralistic 
concentration  in  his  painting  of  1605-08 
for  the  cathedral  at  Piacenza,  now  in  the 
Pinacoteca  at  Modena,  point  to  divergent 
attitudes  between  the  two  artists,  Annibale 


Detail:  Lodovico  Carracci,  Assumption  of  the  Virgin  (see 
J.  L.  Dorminy,  Raleigh,  in  memory  of  her  husband. 


2 


gives  increased  attention  to  the  dramatic 
impact  of  the  incident,  especially  apparent 
in  his  great  altarpiece  of  1601  for  the  Cerasi 
chapel  in  Santa  Maria  del  Popolo  at  Rome, 
whereas  Lodovico  seeks  to  impart  to  the 
onlooker  depth  of  spiritual  significance 
inherent  in  the  "Assumption  of  the  Virgin." 

In  the  Raleigh  altarpiece  the  scene  of 
the  discovery  of  the  empty  tomb  by  the 
apostles  is  clearly  separated  from  that  of 
the  miraculous  assumption  of  the  Madonna 
amid  a  host  of  heavenly  cherubs  and  music- 
making  angels  who  accompany  her  in  her 
glorious  assent.  On  either  side  of  the  gaping 
hollow  of  the  rectangular  tomb  eleven 
apostles  are  grouped.  Several  look  search- 
ingly  into  the  tomb  itself,  while  others 
gaze  intently  at  the  vision  of  the  Virgin 
above  them.  One  of  their  number  shields 
his  face  with  his  hand  as  protection  against 
the  effulgent  glow  emanating  from  the 
heavenly  vision.  The  apostle  John  alone 
turns  his  head  to  look  directly  at  the  spec- 
tator. 

The  upper  and  lower  sections  of  the 
painting  are  less  disparate  than  appears  at 
first  glance,  as  they  are  unified  principally 
by  means  of  the  attitudes  of  the  figures 
and  the  development  of  an  expansive  spiral 
rhythm  which  is  initiated  in  the  group  of 
the  apostles  and  rises  in  a  full  sweep  to 
culminate  in  the  soaring  figure  of  the 
Madonna.  The  directional  movement  cre- 
ated by  the  upturned  faces  and  glances  of 
the  apostles  tends  to  establish  the  spatial 
position  of  the  Virgin  directly  above  the 
group  instead  of  well  in  the  background. 
In  observation  of  comparative  scale  her 
location  in  space  seems  to  be  behind  them. 
However,  Lodovico's  characteristic  use  of 

1  J.-P.  Migne,  Theologiae.  Cursus  Completus  (Paris,  1866) 
Vol.  17,  col.  250:  Lib.  Ill,  Cap.  XXXII. 


brilliant  color  in  garments  worn  by  figures 
in  the  middle  ground  and  of  clear  intense 
tones  in  the  sky  areas  carries  those  forms 
toward  the  foreground  by  virtue  of  the 
aggressive  nature  of  color  intensity.  The 
artist  increases  the  emotional  impact  of 
the  scene  upon  the  spectator  partially  by 
means  of  his  manipulation  of  color.  Such 
an  interpretation  of  movement  and  light  is 
vitally  important  in  the  development  of  the 
full  Baroque  style  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury. 

Prominent  in  the  immediate  foreground 
at  the  left,  St.  Thomas  kneels  on  the  slab 
of  stone  which  has  been  removed  from  the 
tomb,  his  rapt  gaze  fixed  on  the  Virgin. 
He  gestures  toward  the  empty  tomb  with 
his  left  hand,  holding  in  his  right  the  end  of 
the  pure  white  girdle  which,  according  to 
the  thirteenth  century  account  in  Jacobus 
da  Voragine's  Golden  Legend,  fell  unopened 
into  his  hands  that  his  doubt  concerning 
the  miraculous  assumption  might  be  dis- 
pelled. St.  Thomas  wears  the  girdle  instead 
of  merely  holding  it,  as  shown  in  traditional 
renderings  of  the  scene.  This  iconographic 
variant  is  introduced  by  Lodovico  possibly 
in  response  to  directions  outlined  by 
Joannes  Molanus  in  his  De  Historia  Sacrarum 
Imaginnm  et  Picturarum,  first  published  in 
1570.  Molanus  instructs  that  for  the  Festival 
of  the  Assumption  of  the  Virgin  in  mid- 
August  portrayal  of  the  "Assumption" 
should  accord  special  attention  to  St. 
Thomas  in  order  to  inspire  piety  and  de- 
votion within  the  whole  populace.1 

Behind  the  kneeling  figure  of  St.  Thomas 
stands  St.  Peter  with  an  open  book  in  his 
hand,  reminiscent  of  Voragine's  account. 
It  was  to  Peter  that  leadership  in  conduct- 
ing the  obsequies  in  honor  of  the  Virgin 
was  assigned.  On  the  opposite  side  of  the 


3 


grave,  St.  Paul  steps  impetuously  forward 
(see  detail),  inclining  his  head  toward  the 
kneeling  St.  Thomas  and  pointing  em- 
phatically with  a  great  sweeping  gesture 
toward  a  huge  marble  sarcophagus  in  the 
right  middle  ground. 

Placement  of  St.  Peter  on  the  left  and 
St.  Paul  on  the  right  may  be  considered  a 
purposeful  choice  in  order  to  convey 
symbolically  the  differentiation  between  the 
two  apostles,  explained  by  Molanus.  The 
position  of  left  was  bestowed  upon  Peter, 
bearing  the  significance  of  the  active  or 
temporal  life,  and  that  of  right  upon  Paul, 
emblematic  of  the  contemplative  or  celestial 
life.  The  relationship  between  the  two 
disciples  of  Christ  in  their  earthly  mission 
as  ministers  of  the  gospel  is  clarified  through 
association  with  the  marble  monuments 
behind  them.  Behind  the  group  of  which 
Paul  is  a  part  stands  a  Jewish  tomb,  identi- 
fied by  the  relief  of  the  Mosaic  tablets  of 
the  Law.  Pendent  to  it  is  a  Roman-type 
tomb  placed  behind  Peter  on  the  left. 

Visible  in  the  center  of  the  composi- 
tion and  silhouetted  against  the  pano- 
rama of  the  valley  of  Gethsemane  in 
the  distance  is  an  obelisk  on  which  are 
astrological  hieroglyphs.  This  motif  assumes 
primary  importance  in  the  figural  com- 
position, placed  in  coincidence  with  St. 
John's  upraised  right  hand.  It  is  also 
closely  associated  with  the  broad  arc  of 
the  golden  palm  branch  held  in  his  left 
hand.  Within  the  pictorial  organization  St. 
John's  highly  expressive  gesture  is  the  focal 
center  of  the  perspective  system,  all  con- 
structional lines  formed  by  the  open  tomb 
of  the  Virgin  and  the  two  marble  sarco- 
phagi merging  in  the  form  of  his  right 
hand.  The  cluster  of  objects  is  thus  inti- 
mately related,  in  spite  of  their  spatial  loca- 


tion within  areas  widely  separated.  Standing 
with  his  bare  feet  at  the  very  edge  of  the 
open  tomb,  the  figure  of  St.  John  is  in  the 
foreground  immediately  behind  St.  Paul. 
The  obelisk  is  placed  in  the  far  middle 
ground,  its  base  partially  concealed  by 
several  broken  fragments  of  architectural 
elements  lying  on  the  ground.  Attention 
is  called  to  the  interrelationship  between 
all  these  motifs  by  St.  John's  compelling 
glance.  His  attitude  concentrates  interest 
not  only  upon  their  formal  integration 
through  movement  but,  more  significantly, 
also  upon  the  symbolic  meaning  of  them 
in  reference  to  the  Virgin. 

According  to  the  Golden  Legend  the 
beloved  apostle  John  carried  the  branch  of 
the  palm  of  Paradise,  given  to  Mary  by 
the  heavenly  messenger  who  came  to  her 
before  her  death  and  bade  her  have  it 
carried  before  her  bier.  She  entrusted  it 
to  John,  the  first  of  the  apostles  to  arrive 
at  her  bedside.  Since  antiquity  the  motif 
of  the  palm  branch  had  signified  triumph. 
Similarly,  the  Egyptian  obelisk  is  under- 
stood as  emblematic  of  supreme  homage 
bestowed  upon  princes,  symbolic  of  both 
earthly  victory  and  spiritual  glorification. 
Voragine's  record  of  St.  Peter's  intonation 
of  the  psalm  in  honor  of  the  Virgin:  Exiit 
de  Aegypto,  Alleluia!  and  the  bearing  of  the 
sacred  palm  by  St.  John  is  supplemented 
by  the  authority  of  Pierio  Valeriano  in 
whose  Hieroglyphica  the  symbolic  signifi- 
cance of  the  obelisk  is  defined.  Published 
in  1556  and  republished  in  numerous 
editions  until  the  1620's,  Valeriano's  ency- 
clopedic emblem  book  provided  a  wealth 
of  pictorial  imagery  for  artists  in  the  late 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries.  In 
discussing  the  meaning  of  the  obelisk, 
Valeriano  points  out  that  of  all  objects 


4 


none  implied  the  eminence  of  royal  dignity 
contained  in  that  image. 

Lodovico  Carracci's  inclusion  of  the 
motif  of  the  Egyptian  obelisk  in  the  repre- 
sentation of  the  "Assumption  of  the  Virgin" 
is  an  iconographic  innovation  in  early 
Baroque  painting.  It  had  been  incorporated 
previously  in  scenes  from  the  life  of  the 
Virgin,  notably  in  Venetian  painting,  by 
Titian  in  his  "Presentation  of  the  Virgin"  of 
1534-38  and  by  Tintoretto  in  his  remarkable 
portrayal  of  the  same  subject,  completed 
in  1556,  in  the  church  of  Santa  Maria 
dell'Orto  at  Venice.  Interest  in  Egyptian 
monuments  and  in  the  meaning  of  ancient 
hieroglyphs  is  traceable  to  the  High  Renais- 
sance. Such  publications  as  the  anonymous 
Hypnerotomachia  Pcliphili  by  the  Aldine 
Press  in  1499  and  the  Horapollo  Hiero- 
glyphica  in  1505  aroused  curiosity  in  them. 
Contemporary  with  Lodovico's  painting, 
Pope  Sixtus  V  Peretti  was  instrumental  in 
the  spectacular  erection  of  the  great  obelisk 
in  front  of  St.  Peter's  at  Rome  (1585-86). 
Of  even  greater  significance  than  the 
sensational  technological  achievement  of 
dismantling,  transporting  and  re-erecting 
the  monument,  the  only  obelisk  which 
stood  upright  in  Nero's  Circus,  was  the 
new  artistic  meaning  bestowed  upon  it  by 
the  Pope.  The  obelisk  was  symbolic  repre- 
sentation of  divine  union  embodied  in  the 
rays  of  the  sun,  emblem  of  the  triumph  of 
Christ.  No  more  appropriate  object  could 
be  included  in  the  scene  of  the  glorification 
of  the  Virgin  than  that  symbolic  of  her 
Son's  resurrection  and  assumption. 

Stylistically  Lodovico's  altarpiece  reveals 
reminiscence  of  the  Venetian  school,  espe- 
cially of  Tintoretto  in  the  orchestration  of 
the  dark  and  light  pattern.  The  Bolognese 
painter  always  used  patterns  of  value  to 


achieve  striking  pictorial  effects  rather  than 
for  determining  the  massive  quality  of 
three-dimensional  form.  Such  handling  is 
in  contrast  to  Annibale's  sense  of  solidity. 
The  breadth  of  rhythmic  interplay  in  the 
figural  organization  recalls  Titian  although 
the  expansive  surge  of  the  open  spiral 
increases  the  sensation  of  freedom  in 
movement  and  is  quite  different  from  the 
compactness  in  Titian's  solution  in  his 
famous  altarpiece  of  the  "Assumption  of 
the  Virgin"  for  the  church  of  the  Frari  in 
1518. 

Lodovico  retains  the  typical  Mannerist 
repoussoir  figure  in  the  placement  of  the 
figure  of  St.  Paul,  integrating  the  form 
into  the  group  in  a  manner  similar  to 
Tintoretto's  manipulation.  The  method  is 
quite  close  to  that  employed  by  the  Bolog- 
nese Mannerists,  Pellegrino  Tibaldi  and 
Sammacchini.  However,  Mannerist  exag- 
geration of  posture  and  gesture,  prevalent 
in  Italian  painting  prior  to  1580,  is  sharply 
modified  and  controlled  to  project  content 
of  a  decidedly  moralistic  tone.  The  figures 
seem  to  conform  to  a  pre-established 
authority,  acting  with  almost  self-conscious 
sobriety. 

Such  an  abrupt  change  from  Mannerist 
artificiality  to  monumental  dignity  may 
have  been  influenced  by  the  writings  of  the 
Bolognese  archbishop,  Cardinal  Gabriele 
Paleotti,  whose  treatise  Discorso  intorno  alle 
imagine  sacre  e  profane  appeared  at  Bolonga 
in  1582.  Lodovico  gives  evidence  of  striving 
to  comply  with  the  churchman's  instruc- 
tions. There  is  marked  sympathy  between 
the  expressive  quality  of  the  rhetorical 
gestures  in  the  "Assumption  of  the  Virgin" 
and  the  instructions  presented  by  Paleotti 
as  he  expounds  reform  in  religious  painting: 
the  primary  purpose  [of  religious  painting] 


5 


should  be  to  instruct  and  to  edify,  "a  book 
for  the  populace  .  .  .  with  images  which 
breathe  piety,  modesty,  sanctity,  devotion 
.  .  .  and  penetrate  into  us  with  greater 
force  than  words." 

Although  the  Raleigh  "Assumption"  is 
not  securely  dated,2  a  probable  date  may 
be  assigned  by  comparing  it  with  two 
paintings  by  Lodovico  which  are  clearly 
established  in  the  chronology  of  the  master's 
work.  The  first  is  the  monumental  altar- 
piece,  signed  and  dated  1588,  a  commission 
from  the  Bargellini  family,  of  the  "Madonna 
and  Child  Enthroned  with  SS.  Francis, 
Dominic,  Martha  and  Magdalene,"  now 
in  the  Pinacoteca  at  Bologna.  The  second  is 
the  altarpiece  of  the  "Conversion  of  St. 
Paul,"  ordered  by  the  Zambeccari  for  their 
family  chapel  in  the  church  of  S.  Francesco 
at  Bologna  and  datable  on  documentary 
evidence  between  July  18,  1587,  and  May 
15,  1589,  now  also  in  the  Pinacoteca. 

In  the  Bargellini  altarpiece  is  the  same 
configuration  of  an  open  and  expansive 
spiral  which  is  developed  in  the  "Assump- 
tion," the  same  restrained  yet  eloquent 
gestures,  and  the  same  grave  facial  types 
expressing  profound  emotional  intensity. 
However,  in  the  Bargellini  painting  the 
figures  act  more  naturally.  They  appear 
subjected  to  less  rigid  discipline  than  that 
which  governs  the  activity  of  the  figures  in 
the  "Assumption."  On  the  basis  of  com- 
parison, the  Raleigh  "Assumption"  may, 
therefore,  be  placed  prior  to  the  Bargellini 
"Madonna  and  Child"  of  1588. 

In  sharp  contrast  to  both  the  Raleigh 
painting  and  the  Bargellini  altarpiece  the 
wildly  agitated  contortions  of  the  figures 

2  Dr.  Cesare  Gnudi,  Director  of  the  Pinacoteca  at 
Bologna,  is  of  the  opinion  that  the  Raleigh  "Assump- 
tion" is  a  work  of  the  years  between  1595  and  1605. 
Letter  of  July  29,  1957,  to  W.  R.  Valentiner. 


in  the  Zambeccari  "Conversion  of  St. 
Paul"  create  a  highly  intricate  linear 
rhythm.  There  is  startling  ambiguity  of 
space  relationships,  giving  evidence  of 
continuation  of  late  Mannerist  tendencies. 
These  features  were  pronounced  in  Lodo- 
vico's  own  fresco  work  of  1584  in  the  Palazzo 
Fava  at  Bologna,  a  commission  in  which 
both  Agostino  and  Annibale  participated. 
The  explosive  spirit  of  the  "Conversion" 
suggests  contact  with  Parmigianino's  paint- 
ing of  the  same  subject  and  the  sensation- 
alism present  in  the  art  of  the  Florentine 
Mannerists.  In  the  Raleigh  "Assumption" 
Lodovico  shows  conscious  effort  to  eradi- 
cate such  features.  He  exhibits  a  desire  to 
bring  about  a  complete  change  in  his 
artistic  expression.  He  transforms  the  char- 
acter of  his  painting  by  means  of  a  starkly 
simple  organization  of  linear  rhythms  and 
the  introduction  of  stately  gestures.  The 
composition  itself  is  strongly  reminiscent 
of  the  strict  formality  typical  of  High 
Renaissance  painting.  Within  it  is  fused  the 
dynamic  movement  of  the  developing 
Baroque  style. 

An  inferior  replica  of  the  Raleigh 
"Assumption"  is  housed  in  the  Pinacoteca 
at  Bologna.  Acquired  in  1882,  the  painting" 
was  formerly  a  part  of  the  Zambeccari 
collection.  Upon  the  basis  of  internal 
evidence  it  may  be  conjectured  that,  owing 
to  the  difference  in  the  conception  of  the 
two  paintings  of  the  "Assumption  of  the 
Virgin"  and  the  "Conversion  of  St.  Paul," 
the  former  painting  was  rejected  by  the 
Zambeccari  because  of  its  divergence  from 
prevailing  Mannerist  sentiment.  It  was, 
however,  retained  by  the  family  and  the 
artist  prepared  another  altarpiece,  the 
painting  now  in  Raleigh,  for  a  more 
appreciative  patron.  In  his  interpretation 


6 


Lodovico  pointed  the  way  to  the  High 
Baroque  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

In  his  religious  painting  of  the  1590's 
Lodovico  Carracci  produced  great  altar- 
pieces.  The  dramatic  power  of  his  fully 
mature  painting,  exemplified  in  the  "Trans- 
figuration" and  the  "Crowning  with 
Thorns"  of  1595,  exerted  marked  influence 
in  the  formation  of  the  artistic  progeny  of 
the  Carracci  Academy  in  whom  the  High 
Baroque  style  was  to  be  realized. 


Literature 

Heinrich  Bodmer's  monograph  on  Lodo- 
vico Carracci,  published  in  1939  (Burg  bei 
Magdeburg),  gives  further  information  con- 
cerning his  life  and  work,  as  well  as  illustra- 
tions of  those  paintings  referred  to  above. 
Valuable  information  is  also  contained  in 
the  following  publications: 


Adolfo  Venturi,  Storia  dell  ''Arte  Italiana 
(Milan,  1934),  Vol.  IX,  Part  VII, 
pp.  1161-1183. 

Rudolph  Wittkower,  The  Drawings  of  the 
Carracci  in  the  Collection  of  Her  Ala je sty 
the  Qiieen  at  Windsor  Castle  (London, 
1952). 

Cesare  Gnudi,  Mostra  dei  Carracci  (Bo- 
logna, 1956),  pp.  17-47. 

Walter  J.  Friedlaender,  Mannerism  and 
Anti-Mannerism  in  Italian  Painting  (New 
York,  1957). 

Denis  Mahon,  "Afterthoughts  on  the 
Carracci  Exhibition"  in  Gazette  des 
Beaux  Arts,  XLIX  (1957),  pp.  193- 
207,  267-298. 


Dr.  Pinnell  is  Assistant  Professor  of  Art, 
University   of  North    Carolina,    Chapel  Hill. 


7 

Sato  Library 


TWO  PORTRAITS  OF  THE  JACOBEAN  PERIOD 
By  W.  R.  Valentiner 


Some  time  ago  there  appeared  in  the 
News  and  Observer  (Raleigh)  a  letter  to  the 
editor  in  which  the  writer  complained  that 
this  institution  has  too  many  portraits  of 
members  of  the  aristocracy  for  a  museum  of 
a  democratic  community  and  nation.  All 
the  paintings  mentioned  belong  to  the 
English  eighteenth  and  early  nineteenth 
century  schools,  which,  it  is  true,  are  well 
represented  in  our  collection;  this  they 
deserve  from  a  general  art  historical  point 
of  view  as  well  as  from  the  fact  that  here 
in  the  South  the  English  tradition  is  still 
pre-eminent. 

The  main  field  of  early  English  art  is 
portraiture,  and  as  the  court  and  the  aris- 
tocrats related  to  it  were  the  greatest 
patrons  of  art — as  a  matter  of  fact,  not 
only  in  England  but  also  in  France— 
nearly  all  portraitists  of  this  period  devoted 
their  art  to  the  representatives  of  the  upper 
classes. 

If  the  writer  of  this  criticism  would 
study  the  art  of  other  countries  which  is 
equally  well  represented  in  our  Museum, 
he  would  find  that  in  American,  Dutch, 
Flemish,  and  German  art  the  bourgeoisie 
is  depicted  in  as  many  portraits  exhibited  as 
is  the  aristocracy  in  the  English  and  French 
sections;  that  is  the  case  in  countries  which 
were  ruled  by  democratic  governments  and 
where  art  was  patronized  mainly  by  the 
middle  classes.  Such  is  the  course  of  history 
which  we  try  to  explain  through  our 
collections,  regardless  of  any  prejudices 
one  way  or  the  other. 


1  Described  and  illustrated  on  pages  55  and  56. 


We  now  are  able  to  announce  the  acqui- 
sition of  two  more  early  portraits  of  the 
English  aristocracy  of  the  Jacobean  age. 
We  should  immediately  mention  that  at 
the  same  time  there  have  been  added  three 
Dutch  seventeenth  century  portraits  which 
show  types  of  the  Dutch  bourgeoisie  at  the 
period  when  their  democratic  system  had 
emerged  from  the  Dutch-Spanish  war  in 
the  seventeenth  century.  They  are:  two 
single  portraits  by  Govaert  Flinck  of  the 
artist  and  his  wife  and  a  small  group 
portrait  showing  a  family  of  eleven  members 
by  Gerbrand  van  den  Eeckhout.1 

The  two  English  portraits,  one  a  gift  of 
Governor  Hodges,  the  other  an  acquisition 
through  state  funds,  belong  to  the  period 
of  James  I  (1603-1625),  the  successor  of 
Queen  Elizabeth,  that  is,  to  an  epoch 
which  was  the  golden  age  of  English  poetry. 
(Our  portraits  are  dated  1619,  three  years 
after  the  death  of  William  Shakespeare.) 
The  portraits  of  the  Elizabethan  and  Jaco- 
bean time,  long  neglected  in  our  museums, 
as  they  seemed  retardatory  compared  to 
the  general  European  trend  of  the  period, 
have  been  rediscovered  in  recent  years  and 
are  now  so  much  in  the  center  of  interest 
among  students  that  they  almost  over- 
shadow those  of  the  great  age  of  English 
portraiture  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

The  artistic  culture  of  the  Elizabethan 
and  Post-Elizabethan  period  was,  indeed,  so 
original  and  deeply  rooted  in  England  that 
even  artists  who  came  from  the  continent 
in  their  effort  to  supply  the  great  demand 
for  elegant  court  portraits  soon  succumbed 
to  the  peculiar  English  style.  This  also 


8 


happened  to  Paul  van  Somer,  an  artist  of 
Flemish  origin  who  stayed  in  England  only 
five  years,  but  who  shows  the  English  influ- 
ence in  his  pleasure  for  costume  painting 
and  in  a  flat  and  consciously  primitive  con- 
ception. In  the  short  time  he  lived  in  Eng- 
land, from  1616  to  1621,  he,  together  with 
Daniel  Mytens,  became  the  most  important 
predecessor  of  Van  Dyck.  An  early  death 
saved  him  from  the  decline  in  reputation 
which  threatened  Mytens,  who  after  a  long 
hesitation  found  it  more  appropriate  to 
avoid  competition  with  the  incomparable 
Van  Dyck  and  to  return  to  the  continent. 

Paul  van  Somer  was  born  in  Antwerp 
about  1576  and  went  to  Holland  at  an 
early  age,  probably  with  the  Protestant 
refugees  who  left  Flanders  on  account  of 
the  persecutions  of  the  Duke  of  Alba.  In 
1604  he  was  settled  in  Amsterdam,  as  we 
learn  from  the  first  edition  of  Van  Mander, 
of  this  year;  later  he  lived  in  Leiden  for 
several  years  (1612-14)  and  for  a  shorter 
period  in  The  Hague  (161 5). 2 

We  know  little  of  his  Flemish  and  Dutch 
period,  but  as  he  is  mentioned  in  a  number 
of  English  documents  beginning  in  the  year 
1616,  a  good  many  paintings  in  English 
collections  have  been  attributed  to  him.  As 
a  result  of  the  studies  of  E.  Waterhouse,  this 
number  has  been  reduced  to  a  very  small 
one,  as  many  of  those  works  attributed  to 
him  belonged  to  a  period  when  the  artist 
was  still  on  the  continent.3  The  most  out- 
standing ones  of  those  which  are  rightly 

2  As  Van  Mander's  book  came  out  in  1604,  Van 
Somer  must  have  been  at  Amsterdam  some  time  before 
this  date.  The  notes  of  Van  Mander  on  Paul  van  Somer 
have  been  reprinted  in  his  edition  of  1618,  although 
Van  Somer  had  left  Holland  by  this  time. 

3  Ellis  K.  Waterhouse,  Painting  in  Britain  7530-7790 
(Baltimore,  Penguin,  1953),  pp.  33  and  34. 

4  Reproduced  C.  H.  Collins  Baker,  Lely  and  the  Stuart 
Portrait  Painters  (London,  Philip  Lee  Warner,  1912), 
I,  30. 


given  to  Van  Somer  are  the  1617  portrait 
of  Anne  of  Denmark,  the  wife  of  James  I, 
at  Windsor  and  another  of  1619  at  Hamp- 
ton Court  Palace.  Those  nearest  to  the 
pair  in  the  North  Carolina  Museum  of 
Art  are  the  four  portraits  of  Elizabeth 
Countess  of  Exeter,  and  her  three  daughters, 
in  the  possession  of  the  Marquess  of  Ailes- 
bury  (1618),  and  a  portrait  of  Lady  Apsley 
and  her  son  in  Cirencester  House  (ca. 
1619). 4 

Our  portraits,  signed  and  dated  1619, 
come  from  the  same  collection  of  the 
Marquess  of  Ailesbury  and  are  described 
in  Waterhouse's  chapter  on  the  artist.  They 
represent  the  Second  Earl  of  Devonshire 
with  his  son,  and  his  wife  the  Countess  of 
Devonshire  with  her  daughter.  Besides  the 
signature  and  the  date  of  the  artist,  the 
portraits  have  inscriptions  which  read  as 
follows:  "William  Lord  Cavendish,  Earle 
of  Devonshire  husband  to  Christian  Bruce 
Countess  of  Devonshire,  his  son  William 
Lord  Cavendish  after  Earle  of  Devonshire 
he  has  in  his  hand."  In  the  upper  right 
corner  of  the  painting  the  age  of  the  Earl  is 
given  as  twenty-nine;  in  the  lower  left  is 
given  the  age  of  the  son,  which  it  is  im- 
possible to  decipher. 

The  companion  piece  has  the  following 
inscription:  "Christian  Countess  of  Devon- 
shire wife  to  William  Earle  of  Devonshire 
having  in  her  hand  her  daughter  and  Lady 
Rich,  and  then  with  child  of  Coll:  Charles 
Cavendish  slaine  at  Gainsborowe  in  his 
Ma:tis  sarvis."  The  age  of  the  subject  is 
given  as  twenty-two  years  and  five  months, 
and  that  of  her  daughter  as  six  years  and 
ten  months,  which  means  that  the  Countess 
Christian  married  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  an 
age  not  unusual  for  marriage  at  this  period. 

The  inscription  referring  to  the  Duchess 


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10 


is  somewhat  difficult  to  explain;  it  means, 
obviously,  that  the  girl  next  to  her  is  the 
child  of  her  first  marriage  with  Charles 
Cavendish,  the  brother  of  her  present  hus- 
band, who  was  killed  in  the  battle  at  Gains- 
borough in  the  service  ("sarvis")  of  the 
king.  Another  portrait  of  William  Lord 
Cavendish,  who  'holds  on  his  hand'  the 
child  from  the  second  marriage  of  the 
Duchess,  exists  at  Hardwick  Hall;  it  was 
painted  six  years  later  by  Daniel  My  tens. 5 
It  is  interesting  to  compare  Paul  van 
Somer's  paintings  with  those  of  some  of 
his  contemporaries  on  the  continent,  so  as 
to  become  aware  of  the  difference  in  style 
between  the  continental  conception  and 
that  which  Van  Somer  adopted  in  his  Eng- 
lish period.  We  take  as  an  example  a  little- 
known  portrait  by  Cornells  van  der  Voort 
in  the  Norfolk,  Virginia,  Museum,  a  gift 
of  Emil  Wolfe  of  New  York,  which  was 
painted  at  about  the  same  time  (Van  der 
Voort  died  in  1624).  The  artist  had  a  career 
similar  to  that  of  Paul  van  Somer,  inasmuch 
as  he  was  born  in  Antwerp  in  the  same  year 
(1576),  emigrated  then  to  Holland,  but 
stayed  for  the  rest  of  his  life  at  Amsterdam 
(Van  Mander  mentions  him  immediately 
after  Van  Somer).  There  he  became  one  of 
the  transitional  masters  who  bridged  the 
gap  between  Flemish  style  initiated  by 
Rubens  and  that  of  the  predecessors  of  Rem- 
brandt. Van  der  Voort  followed  the  general 
tendency  of  Netherlandish  portrait  painting 
in  stressing  the  volume  of  the  figure  in  the 
baroque  manner,  developing  the  depth  and 
working  towards  a  strong  modelling  from 
light  to  dark.  On  the  contrary,  Van  Somer 
preserves  a  more  archaic  linear  pattern  in 
which  the  features  are  clearly  outlined  and 


6  Reproduced  in  Collins-Baker,  op.  cit.,  I,  46. 


Cornelis  van  der  Voort  (Amsterdam,  1576- 
1624),  Portrait  of  a  Gentleman.  Norfolk,  Virginia, 
Museum. 


drawn  without  much  modelling.  The  eyes 
and  brows,  for  instance,  are  designed  in  a 
conventional  manner  with  the  light  on  the 
pupils  always  at  the  same  spot.  But  more 
important  are  the  effective,  decorative 
colors  of  the  costume:  The  gentleman  in  a 
deep  shiny  plum  brocade  costume,  the 
child  in  white  with  blue  girdle,  the  lady  in 
a  silvery  dress  with  brown  "fond,"  the  girl 
in  silver  gray  with  pink  sash.  The  flat, 
ornamental  style  characteristic  of  the  cos- 
tume pieces  of  the  Elizabethan  period  is 
still  pronounced  in  Van  Somer's  paintings 
and  differentiates  them  from  the  portrait 
of  Van  der  Voort  with  its  black  costume, 
which  is  unobtrusive  compared  to  the 
head  and  hands  with  their  forceful  model- 
ling,   The    connection    with    the  Italian 


11 


Renaissance,  also  evident  in  the  English 
literature  of  the  time,  is  more  obvious  in 
Van  Somer's  paintings  than  in  the  portraits 
of  Van  der  Voort:  The  dresses  of  the  adults 
and  those  of  the  children  are  made  of 


colorful  Italian  brocade,  and  the  mass  of 
costly  lace  which  covers  the  dresses  of  the 
lady  and  both  children  is  of  the  rare 
Reticella  type  which  was  imported  to  Eng- 
land from  Venice. 


12 


CRITICAL  REMARKS  ON  THE  WORK  OF  AGOSTINO  CORNACCHINI 

By  Herbert  Keutner 
I 


Before  we  attempt  to  fit  the  two  angels 
with  crucifixion  tools  (figures  1  and  2)  in 
the  North  Carolina  Musuem  of  Art  1  into 
the  work  of  Agostino  Cornacchini  (born 
1685  in  Pescia  near  Pistoia;  died  1740  in 
Rome  [?])  it  seems  advisable  to  begin  with 
some  remarks  about  the  place  of  this  artist 


1  Gifts  of  Mrs.  Garland  Tucker,  Raleigh,  and  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Arthur  W.  Levy,  Jr.,  of  Raleigh;  at  one 
time  in  the  collection  of  F.  Macomber,  Boston.  Marble. 
Height  of  the  Angel  with  the  Column:  43  inches,  height 
of  the  Angel  with  the  Veil  of  Veronica:  42  inches. 

2  Except  for  a  few  isolated  lexical  mentionings  and 
some  short  references,  concerning  the  artist,  there  does 
not  exist,  up  to  this  day,  any  essay  in  the  Italian  literature 
of  guides  or  in  more  comprehensive  art  historical  en- 
cyclopaedias dealing  exclusively  with  Cornacchini. 
J.  R.  Fiissli  (Allgemeines  Kiinstlerlexikon.  .  .  ,  Zurich, 
1779,  p.  174),  still  unprejudiced,  listed  in  this  earliest 
survey  only  those  works  of  the  artist  which  were  known 
to  him.  Leopoldo  Cicognara,  however,  described 
Cornacchini  mainly  in  view  of  his  equestrian  statue  of 
Charlemagne,  "uno  dei  piu  tristi  scultori  che  mai 
tratassero  lo  scarpello"  {Storia  della  Scultura  .  .  .  ,  2nd 
ed.,  Vol.  6  (1824),  p.  236).  This  opinion  was  not  only 
upheld  all  through  the  nineteenth  century,  but  it  is 
still  detectable  in  Friedrich  Noack's  writing:  "He 
[Cornacchini]  displays  in  his  work  very  great  technical 
knowledge,  but  he  is  indulging  in  all  the  excesses  of 
the  taste  of  the  Baroque"  (Thieme-Becker,  Allgemeines 
Lexikon  der  bild.  Kunstler,  Leipzig,  Vol.  VII,  1912,  p.  419). 

3  Signs  of  a  revised  appreciation  of  his  art  during 
recent  years  we  find,  however,  in  isolated  places,  for 
instance  in  G.  De  Logu,  La  scultura  Italiana  del  Seicento  e 
del  Settecento.  Firenze,  1932,  p.  67,  or  in  A.  Riccoboni, 
Roma  dell  'Arte:  La  Scultura  nell  'Evo  moderno  dal  Quattro- 
cento ad  oggi,  Roma,  1942,  p.  282  ft.,  with  useful,  though 
incomplete  index  of  his  work. 

4  We  learn  from  the  Vita  written  by  his  friend  and 
patron  F.  M.  Gaburri,  which  will  be  published  in 
the  next  number  of  the  Bulletin,  that  Cornacchini 
moved  from  Florence  to  Rome  in  1712. 

6  Already  his  contemporaries  considered  Rusconi  as 
a  revolutionary  in  art;  for  instance  Leone  Pascoli  in 
1730  in  his  Vita  on  the  artist  (Vite  de'  Pitlori  .  .  .  ,  Roma, 
1730,  I,  262):  "perche  in  esse  (the  Apostle  sculptures 
in  S.  Giovanni  in  Laterano)  risorta  la  correzione  e  la 
venerabilita  degli  antichi,  e  la  vivezza,  l'espressiva  e 
la  bizzaria  de'  moderni,  vedea  Roma  rinato  il  morto 
gusto  della  scultura." 


in  relation  to  the  art  of  his  time;  even  to 
this  day  one  adheres  to  a  general  negative 
criticism,  started  by  Canova's  friend  Leo- 
poldo Cicognara2  of  his  art,  a  criticism 
which  for  us,  contemporaries,  should  have 
lost  its  meaning  long  ago,  since  it  is  based 
on  the  critical  attitude  of  Classicism  towards 
all  art  of  the  Baroque.3 

Cornacchini  belongs  to  that  group  of 
sculptors,  born  during  the  last  quarter  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  who  had  come  to 
Rome  from  the  numerous  provinces  of 
Italy,  exercising  a  decisive  influence  on  the 
development  of  sculpture  in  this  place.  His 
contribution  to  the  many-colored  facets  of 
sculpture  in  Rome  during  the  first  half  of 
the  eighteenth  century  has  passed  un- 
noticed so  far,  a  fact  which  is  the  more 
surprising  since  his  work  has  made  contri- 
butions of  very  definite,  personal  accents. 
In  1712  he  moved  from  Florence  to  Rome, 
after  having  served  his  apprenticeshiD  in 
the  workshop  of  Giovanni  Battista  Foggini.4 
It  was  Camillo  Rusconi  who  at  this  time 
was  active  in  Rome  and  was  accepted  as 
the  most  influential,  uncontested  master; 
in  the  growing  classicistic  tendencies  of  his 
creations  he  worked  against  the  high  ba- 
roque taste  of  Bernini's  epoch.  5  During  those 
years  Rusconi  created  in  collaboration  with 
congenial  sculptors,  like  Giuseppe  Maz- 
zuoli,  Pietro  Le  Gros  the  Younger,  Pietro 
Stefano  Monnot  or  Lorenzo  Ottoni,  the 
monumental  series  of  Apostles,  which  were 


13 


Fig.  1.  Agostino  Cornacchini  (Italian,  1685-1740),  Angel 
with  Scourge  Column,  1730-34.  Marble,  height  43  inches. 
Gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Arthur  W.  Levy,  Jr.,  Raleigh. 


14 


Fig.  2.  Agostino  Cornacchini,  Angel  with  the  Veil  of  Veronica, 
1730-34.  Marble,  height  42  inches.  Gift  of  Mrs.  Garland  S. 
Tucker,  Raleigh. 


15 


meant  to  be  placed  in  the  Basilica  of  S.  Gio- 
vanni in  Laterano.6 

Young  Cornacchini  could  not  yet  take 
part  in  this  important  undertaking;  how- 
ever, in  later  commissions  he  worked  side 
by  side  with  Rusconi.7  He  obviously  did 
not  avoid  collaboration,  and  he  certainly 
did  not  consciously  withdraw  from  Rus- 
coni's  influence;  yet  he  did  not  give  himself 
up  to  his  intimate  artistic  discipleship.  To 
the  contrary,  this  young  Tuscan  is  the 
first  sculptor  of  his  time  to  be  commissioned 
and  to  receive  honors  side  by  side  with  the 
aging  master,  introducing  a  new  conception 
of  restrained  beauty,  of  delicate  perception 
and  of  inconspicuous,  pleasing  decoration. 
This  is  the  reason  we  consider  as  his  par- 
ticularly characteristic  creations  those  fig- 
ures of  the  "Spes"  in  the  Chapel  of  Monte 

c  In  the  execution  of  this  commission  for  the  final 
adornment  of  the  basilica  of  the  Laterano,  which  was 
given  by  Pope  Clement  XI  in  1703  and  which  was 
accomplished  about  1720,  participants  included,  besides 
the  sculptors  who  were  already  mentioned,  Angelo 
de' Rossi,  Francesco  Moratti  and  Lorenzo  Ottoni;  each 
of  these  artists  created  one  statue.  Concerning  Rusconi's 
participation  compare  in  particular  R.  Wittkower  in 
Zeitschrijtf.  bildende  Kunst,  Vol.  60  (1927-28),  p.  9  ft. 

EDITOR'S  NOTE:  This  series  of  apostles  can  be 
seen  clearly  in  Ghezzi's  representation  of  the  interior 
of  S.  Giovanni  in  Laterano  (1725)  in  the  collection  of 
the  North  Carolina  Museum  of  Art. 

7  In  connection  with  the  commission  for  the  adorn- 
ment of  the  church  of  the  Descalzas  Reales  in  Madrid, 
in  1725  Rusconi  created  the  monumental  altar  relief 
of  Francesco  da  Regis  in  Glory  (compare  G.  Bottari  and 
S.  Ticozzi,  Raccolta  di  Letteie  .  .  .  ,  Milano,  1822,  II, 
319),  whereas  Cornacchini  created  the  reclining  statue 
of  the  Saint  (see  next  issue  of  the  present  journal). 
This  statue,  which  was  destroyed  during  the  Spanish 
Revolutionary  War  in  1936  (communication  of  Manu 
Losonte,  Madrid),  has  been  authenticated  as  a  work  of 
Cornacchini  by  Gaburri. 

8  On  the  occasion  of  the  commissioning  of  the  eques- 
trian statue,  which  was  exposed  to  continual  criticism 
due  to  the  conspicuous  place  it  had  and  the  inevitable 
comparison  with  Bernini's  Constantine,  the  contempo- 
raries did  not  suppress  their  doubts  as  to  whether 
Cornacchini  really  may  have  been  the  most  capable 
man  for  such  a  great  task;  compare  the  preface  in  the 
Relatione  della  Statua  equestre  di  Carlo  Magno  eretta  nel 
Portico  del  Tempio  Vaticano  colla  raccolta  d'alcuni  Componi- 
menti  Poetici,  Siena,  1725,  p.  2,  published  at  the  occasion 
of  the  unveiling  of  the  monument. 


di  Pieta  or  the  "Prudentia"  in  the  Corsini 
Chapel  of  S.  Giovanni  in  Laterano  (figure 
3).  From  the  neighboring  group  at  the 
same  places,  created  at  the  same  period, 
they  distinguish  themselves  by  their  gracile 
constitution,  their  relaxed  movements,  and 
the  embellishment  of  draperies  and  acces- 
sories. Compared  to  the  more  formal  yet 
always  forceful  pathos  of  Rusconi's  figures, 
those  of  the  younger  master  seem  less  unap- 
proachable, less  monumental,  more  rococo 
in  style.  It  seems  to  us  that  this  is  Cornac- 
chini's  contribution  to  the  development  of 
sculpture  in  Rome  during  the  first  half  of 
that  century.  By  virtue  of  his  moderate, 
amiable  temper  he  gave  this  period  color 
and  characteristic  traits  of  the  rococo-- 
not  really  as  an  adequate  opponent  of 
Camillo  Rusconi,  yet  representing  a  per- 
sonality in  whose  creations  we  find  the 
embodiment  of  a  changing  mode  of  life,  of 
a  new  intellectuality.  The  sources  of  his 
artistic  expression,  shaped  equally  by  no- 
bility as  by  middle  class,  can  be  traced 
with  good  reason  to  his  Tuscan  origin.  Only 
one  other  sculptor  of  that  particular 
period,  his  younger  fellow  countryman 
Filippo  della  Valle,  also  trained  in  Foggini's 
workshop,  had  realized  similar  work  in 
Rome,  in  the  spirit  of  the  rococo. 

Considering  Cornacchini's  talents  for  the 
diminutive,  for  the  humanly  tangible,  no 
more  unsuitable  commission  could  be  given 
to  Cornacchini  than  the  one  for  the 
equestrian  statue  of  Charlemagne  in  the 
vestibule  of  S.  Pietro  in  Vaticano.  In  the 
ambling  of  the  horse,  in  the  taffeta-like 
creases  of  the  gigantic  drapes  we  perceive 
how  little  he  could  match  a  task  which 
would  have  required  an  artistic  mind 
accustomed  to  composing  on  a  large  scale.8 
Thus  his  most  monumental  creation  be- 


16 


17 


Fig.  5.  Funeral  Chapel  of  the  Savoy,  Superga  (near  Turin). 


came — necessarily,  one  should  say — his 
most  violently  criticised  work. 

But  now  let  us  turn  to  the  two  passion 
angels  in  Raleigh.  On  first  sight  it  may 
seem  daring  to  point  beyond  a  workshop 


group  by  attributing  to  a  certain  artist  the 
creation  of  a  pair  of  isolated  putti  without 
the  knowledge  of  their  origin.  Yet  no 
matter  how  closely  the  vast  number  of 
putti  of  the  baroque  period  resemble  one 


18 


another  since  Duquesnoy,  a  thorough 
examination  soon  identifies  the  handwriting 
of  the  artist.  If,  for  instance,  we  compare 
Cornacchini's  mourning  angels  in  the 
Lateran  Corsini  Chapel  with  the  neighbor- 
ing "Virtues"  by  Giuseppe  Lironi  or  by 
Giuseppe  Rusconi  (figure  4),  we  find  our- 
selves confronted  with  tiny,  agile  creatures 
whose  muscles  and  joints  are  distinctly 
articulated,  whose  bodies  are  nearly  adult 
in  proportion,  and  whose  physiognomies 
display  traits  which  definitely  are  developed 
beyond  their  years.  In  the  supple  move- 
ments of  their  joints  and  in  their  lively 
gestures  they  behave  almost  like  boys 
matured  into  self-consciousness. 

In  comparison  with  those  creations  the 
angels  of  Cornacchini  (figures  5  and  6) 
seem  even  more  infant-like  in  constitution 
and  attitude.  Ball-shaped,  chubby  faced, 
large  heads  sit  on  the  well-rounded  bodies; 
legs  and  arms  are  robust  and  plump.  The 
eyes  are  rather  deeply  embedded,  which 
makes  eyebrows  and  forehead  seem  like 
heavy  weights  stretching  above.  To  such 
exuberant  and  still  completely  creature- 
like phenomena  belong  their  somnolent 
state,  the  reflective  expression,  and  their 
saturated,  deliberate,  and  reserved  move- 
ments. Furthermore,  attention  should  be 
drawn  to  an  endeavour  typical  of  Cornac- 
chini, that  is,  the  elimination  of  any  twin- 
like resemblance  in  all  his  seemingly  paired 
figures  by  differently  arranged  hair-styles. 
In  our  two  passion  angels  (figures  1  and  2), 
the  one  with  the  scourge  column  has 
thickly  growing  hair  bundled  into  strands 
and  rolled  up  into  curls  of  little  lustre.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  angel  with  the  holy 
handkerchief  of  Veronica  has  soft,  straight 

9  A.  Telluccini,  La  Real  Chiesa  di  Soperga,  Torino, 
1912,  p.  81  and  note  2. 


hair,  silky,  shining,  and  cut  short.  In  the 
putti  pair  of  the  Spes  or  the  Prudentia,  in 
the  pendant  groups  in  Pistoia  of  the  birth 
of  Christ  and  of  the  descent  from  the  Cross, 
or  in  the  pair  of  angels  in  Turin  which  will 
be  mentioned  later — everywhere  these  dif- 
ferences in  the  treatment  of  the  hair  appear 
so  methodically  that  for  the  identification 
of  works  by  Cornacchini  they  have  the 
significance  of  his  signature. 

In  addition  to  these  characteristics  of 
style,  there  are  still  other  indications  leading 
us  toward  attributing  the  two  angels  in 
Raleigh  to  our  master.  These  indications 
might  suggest  an  answer  to  the  question  as 
to  their  original  destination,  their  setting 
up,  and  their  dates.  Towards  the  end  of 
the  twenties,  when  the  Superga  near  Turin, 
dedicated  by  Vittorio  Amedeo  II  of  Savoy 
and  erected  by  Filippo  Juvarra,  was  nearly 
completed,  Agostino  Cornacchini,  together 
with  Bernardo  Cametti  from  the  Piedmont, 
was  given  the  commission  for  the  adorn- 
ment of  the  interior.  He  carved  one  of  the 
three  great  altar  reliefs  with  the  presen- 
tation of  Mary's  birth.  On  delivery  of  this 
work  in  November  1730,  the  donor  entered 
into  a  second  agreement  with  him  "per 
fattura  di  un  bassorilievo  in  marmo  rap- 
presentante  la  Pieta  da  collocarsi  nella 
Cappella  sotterranea  della  Real  Chiesa  di 
Soperga."  9  The  period  and  text  of  this 
second  commission  do  not  leave  any  doubt 
that  it  was  the  plan  of  the  king  to  arrange 
the  lower  church,  which  should  serve  in 
the  future  as  the  burial  place  of  the  House 
of  Savoy,  in  immediate  proximity  to  the 
main  church,  completed  in  1731.  Yet  the 
project  of  this  first  arrangement  was  sus- 
pended for  several  decades  after  the  death 
of  Vittorio  Amedeo  in  1732. 

It  was  only  in  1773  that  the  grandson 


19 


20 


Vittorio  Amedeo  III  revived  the  idea  of 
a  family  burial  place  and,  with  the  help  of 
the  nephew  Juvarras  Francesco  Martinez 
and  his  successor  Carlo  Amedeo  Rana 
during  the  seventies  and  eighties,  he  had 
the  lower  church  put  into  the  state  in  which 
it  is  preserved  until  this  day10  (figure  5). 
On  this  occasion  the  chapel  and  burial 
niche  received  a  completely  new,  coherent 
decoration  in  which  a  few  items  were 
retained  of  the  original  fragmentary  decora- 
tion from  the  beginning  of  the  thirties. 
Retained  above  all  was  Cornacchini's  altar 
relief  of  the  Pieta  (figure  5) ;  it  was,  how- 
ever, mutilated  by  being  clipped  hori- 
zontally, and  even  more  vertically,  so  that 
it  could  be  fully  visible  beyond  and  above 
the  newly  erected  sarcophagus  in  the 
middle  of  the  chapel.11  Also  used,  further- 
more, were  the  two  passion  angels  at 
right  and  left  of  the  relief,  together  with 
their  volutes  (figures  6  and  7).  These 
mourning  angels  are  so  unmistakably  char- 
acteristic creatures  of  Cornacchini  that 
even  without  documentary  proof  it  is 
obvious  that  they  could  only  have  been 
created  in  connection  with  the  commis- 
sioned altar  relief.  As  to  the  volute  ends 
on  which  they  are  placed,  they  also  date 
from  the  first  phase  of  the  arrangement; 
this  can  be  ascertained  by  an  examination 
of  their  profile,  which  at  no  place  corre- 
sponds with  the  one  of  the  renovated  altar 
construction  of  the  later  period  (figure  6). 

Having  in  mind  their  style  and  propor- 
tions, we  shall  not  be  able  to  consider  the 
two  marble  consoles,  today  empty,  in  the 

10  A.  Telluccini,  op.,  cit.,  79. 

11  This  compression  and  "adjustment"  of  the  relief, 
particularly  unfortunate  in  the  vertical  extension,  took 
place  after  Martinez's  death  in  1778  and  was  executed 
by  the  Architect  Carlo  Amedeo  Rana.  Compare 
A.  Telluccini  op.,  cit.,  p.  81. 


Fig.  8.  Diagram  plan  of  empty  console,  Funeral 
Chapel  of  the  Savoy,  Superga. 


corners  at  right  and  left  of  the  lower  altar 
steps  (figure  5)  as  being  essential  parts  of 
the  reconstruction.  But  could  they,  like 
the  others,  be  a  part  of  the  original  arrange- 
ment, which  remained  fragmentary?  Then 
could  it  be,  perhaps,  that  our  two  angels 
had  their  original  placement  at  this  loca- 
tion? In  the  framework  of  the  iconographic 
program  of  the  Pieta,  with  scourge  column, 
and  the  holy  handkerchief  of  Veronica, 
our  two  angels  would  quite  naturally  have 
enriched  and  completed  the  composition 
of  already  existing  passion  tools,  the  cross 
and  the  crown  of  thorns  in  the  relief  itself 
and  the  nails  and  pliers  which  are  being 
held  by  the  sitting  angels.  The  measure- 
ments of  the  tops  of  the  consoles  and  the 
diameters  of  the  bases  of  our  passion 
angels  harmonize  to  such  a  degree  that 
both  parts  must,  it  seems  to  us,  be  meant 
for  each  other  (figure  8). 

Our  presumption  with  regard   to  the 


21 


origin  of  the  two  passion  angels  in  Raleigh 
cannot  be  assured  by  incontestable  proof; 
however,  all  circumstances  point  to  the 
hypothesis  that  the  angels  were  part  of  the 
original  arrangement  of  the  Funeral  Chapel 
of  the  Savoy  in  the  Superga  near  Turin 
and  that  they  were  created  by  Agostino 
Cornacchini  in  the  years  1730  to  1734. 


The  next  article  by  Dr.  Keutner,  to  appear  in 
the  next  issue,  will  contain  a  newly  discovered 
Vita  of  Cornacchini  which  he  found  in  the  Biblio- 
theca  Nazionale,  Florence,  in  addition  to  illustra- 
tions of  some  of  Cornacchini' s  better-known  works. 


Dr.  Keutner,  who  is  connected  with  the  Kunst- 
historisches  Institut  in  Florence,  is  an  outstanding 
student  of  Baroque  sculpture. 


22 


A  VISIT  TO  POSSAGNO 


By  Ben  F. 

In  1957  many  celebrations  in  Italy 
centered  around  the  two  hundreth  anni- 
versary of  the  birth  of  Antonio  Canova,  the 
renowned  neo-classic  sculptor  who  in  1820, 
a  year  before  his  death,  completed  a  monu- 
mental statue  of  George  Washington  for 
the  State  of  North  Carolina.  The  statue,  an 
over  life-sized  seated  figure,  was  unveiled 
in  the  small  rotunda  of  the  State  House  in 
Raleigh,  December  24,  1821.1  The  work 
had  been  commissioned  by  the  North 
Carolina  legislature  several  years  earlier— 
a  very  unusual  step  for  the  state  legislature 
to  take  at  that  time. 

The  idea  of  acquiring  a  statue  of  Wash- 
ington for  North  Carolina  was  first  im- 
planted in  the  minds  of  the  citizens  and 
legislators  in  Raleigh  by  A.  G.  Glynn  in  a 
patriotic  fourth  of  July  celebration  speech  in 
1815.  Washington,  and  what  he  stood  for, 
was  uppermost  in  the  minds  of  the  people. 
After  a  banquet  that  evening,  the  following 
toasts  were  made:  "The  memory  of  George 
Washington  tho'  every  struggle  we  are 
called  upon  to  make  for  the  maintenance 
of  our  Independence,  will  raise  up  distin- 
guished Heroes  and  Statesmen,  Washington 
will  still  remain  first  in  the  hearts  of  the 
American  People"  and  "Agriculture, 
Manufacturers,  Commerce,  and  the  Arts — 
the  great  sources  of  National  wealth  and 
grandeur."  2 

Shortly  afterwards  a  committee  from  the 
legislature  began  to  look  for  an  American 

1  Raleigh  Register,  December  1821. 

2  Raleigh  Register,  July  7,  1815. 

See  also  R.  D.  W.  Conner,  Canova' s  Statue  of  Washington, 
1910,  and  Albert  TenEyck  Gardner,  Yankee  Stone 
Cutters,  New  York,  Columbia  University  Press,  1945. 


Williams 

sculptor  to  do  the  work.  They  wrote  to 
important  statesmen  and  national  leaders 
asking  for  their  advice  in  the  matter. 
They  received  many  suggestions  but  most 
agreed  that  America,  at  that  time,  could 
not  provide  a  sculptor  competent  enough 
to  execute  such  a  work.  Thomas  Jefferson, 
writing  from  Monticello,  January  22,  1816, 
dispatched  a  long  letter  carefully  covering 
all  angles  that  should  be  considered  in 
such  an  undertaking  and  saying  that  there 
was  only  one  answer  as  to  whom  the  com- 
mission should  be  given.  He  recommended 
"Old  Canove"  of  Rome — the  most  famous 
and  respected  sculptor  in  all  Europe. 
Jefferson  stated  that  Canova,  as  all  people 
of  taste  in  Europe,  would  surely  make  the 
costume  of  Washington  Roman,  which  was 
the  epitome  of  the  neoclassic  fashion  in 
vogue  at  that  time. 

Canova  accepted  the  commission  and 
began  to  work.  Four  years  later  the  statue 
reached  its  destination.  There  are  first- 
hand accounts  in  contemporary  Raleigh 
papers  expressing  the  ripple  of  excitement 
when  the  celebrated  statue  finally  arrived. 
People  lined  the  roadsides  to  see  the  "father 
of  our  country"  being  hauled  by  oxen 
into  Raleigh  over  the  plank  road  from 
Fayetteville.  The  statue  had  been  taken  to 
the  Italian  port  of  Leghorn,  hence  to  Bos- 
ton, down  to  Wilmington  and  up  the  Cape 
Fear  River  to  Fayetteville  where  it  began 
its  land  journey  once  again.  There  was 
much  discussion  and  marveling  over  the 
statue  of  George  Washington  dressed  in 
Roman  armor,  a  tunic  and  a  flowing  toga, 
seated  with  one  sandled  foot  outstretched. 


23 


Fig.  1.  Lithograph  showing  General  Lafayette  observing  statue  of  George  Washington  installed  on 
pedestal  in  State  House  rotunda  in  Raleigh.  From  nineteenth  century  lithograph.  Hall  of  History, 
Raleigh. 


24 


a  tablet  representing  his  Farewell  Address 
in  his  left  hand,  a  stylus  in  his  right 
hand  poised  after  having  inscribed  the 
tablet  "Giorgio  Washington  al  popolo 
degli  Stati  Uniti;  Amici  e  Concittadini.  .  .  ." 
The  marble  sculpture  was  finally  put  into 
place  in  the  Capitol.  After  the  long  opera- 
tion, one  observer  commented  that  the 
base  of  the  statue  should  have  had  rollers 
under  it  in  case  there  was  ever  a  need  to 
get  it  out  of  the  Capitol  quickly,  but  no 
one  heeded  his  remark.  Since  the  fine 
statue  had  come  all  the  way  from  Rome 
without  a  scratch,  it  was  thought  indestruct- 
ible.3 The  capital  building  was  then  re- 
modeled to  enhance  its  surroundings.  The 
statue,  the  first  significant  sculpture  to  be 
imported,  was  considered  everywhere  in 
America  the  finest  work  of  art  in  the 
country.  It  was  reproduced  in  several 
lithographs  and  engravings  of  the  time,  one 
of  which  shows  General  Lafayette,  who 
visited  Raleigh  in  1825,  admiring  it  and 
commenting  on  the  likeness  in  the  face. 
(See  figure  1 .) 

In  1830,  nine  years  after  the  arrival  of 
the  statue,  the  Capitol  burned  and  the 
statue  being  too  heavy  to  move  was  crushed 
in  the  flames.  When  the  new  state  capitol 
was  begun  in  1833  by  Towne  and  Davis, 
the  rotunda  was  designed  with  the  hope  of 
having  the  broken  statue  repaired  and 
returned  to  its  place  on  view.  The  hope 
was  shattered,  however,  when  Robert  Ball 
Hughes,  employed  for  the  project  of  restora- 
tion, ran  off  with  his  fee  and  with  some 
important  pieces  of  marble,  never  to  return. 

In  this  country,  Canova  and  the  statue 
of  George  Washington  faded  into  the  past 
until  1910  when  the  Italian  government 

3  The  statue  was  signed  and  marked  "Roma."  (From 
remaining  fragments.) 


presented  the  state  with  a  plaster  cast  of 
it  which  is  now  in  the  Hall  of  History  in 
Raleigh. 

Antonio  Canova  was  born  in  1757  and 
died  in  1821.  He  worked  in  Rome,  Venice 
and  Possagno.  His  works,  too  numerous  to 
mention  in  detail  here,  can  be  found  in 
abundance  in  Italy  and  are  included  in 
museum  collections  throughout  the  Western 
World.  They  include  many  mythological 
subjects,  tomb  sculptures  and  portraits  in 
which  he  tried  to  revive  the  Greek  and 
Roman  idea  of  formal  beauty.  In  the 
Palazzo  Pesaro,  Venice,  is  a  painting  of 
his  funeral,  and  a  short  distance  away  in  a 
large  church,  Santa  Maria  Gloriosa  dei 
Frari,  which  contains  the  tombs  of  many 
famous  Venetians,  one  can  see  the  well- 
known  tomb  of  Canova,  a  pyramidal 
structure  with  eight  figures  designed  by 
Canova  but  executed  by  his  pupils. 

One  day  this  past  summer,  upon  going 
to  these  places  in  Venice,  my  wife  and  I 
began  thinking  again  of  the  statue  of 
George  Washington  and  wondering  how 
and  where  we  could  see  more  of  the  works 
of  Canova  and  perhaps  secure  some  more 
information  on  the  statue  completed  over 
a  hundred  years  ago  for  Raleigh.  The 
following  day  I  found  a  small  red  pamphlet 
entitled  This  Week  in  Venice;  it  contained 
various  advertisements  and  announcements, 
and  on  the  last  page  we  found  a  very  small 
ad  with  a  drawing  entitled  "The  Two 
Hundredth  Anniversary  of  Canova,  1757- 
1957 — For  information — see  these  tourist 
bureaus — "  and  at  the  bottom  in  very 
small  print  "Treviso  and  Possagno."  The 
small  drawing  showed  a  domed  building 
with  an  eight-column  facade,  a  neoclassic 
adaption  of  the  Pantheon,  standing  on  a 
hill;  at  the  foot  of  the  hill  was  a  simple 


25 


Fig.  2.  Full-scale  pointing-up  model  for  statue  of  George  Washington.  Canova  Museum,  Possagno. 

Photograph  courtesy  of  the  Istituto  di  Storia  dell' Arte  Fondazione  Giorgio  Cini  di  Venezia. 


26 


rectangular  building — a  drawing  of  the 
temple  of  Canova  which  dominates  the 
little  town  of  his  birth,  Possagno.  We  found 
on  the  map  that  Possagno  is  a  small  moun- 
tain village  northwest  of  Venice  and  that 
Treviso,  much  larger,  is  closer  to  Venice. 
The  Venice  tourist  office  knew  little  except 
that  perhaps  there  was  a  Canova  exhibition 
in  Treviso.  Looking  in  a  guide  book  we 
noticed  that  the  Museo  Civico  is  on  a  street 
named  Canova,  which  encouraged  us.  As 
we  were  planning  to  go  to  Padua  the  next 
day,  we  thought  a  trip  to  Treviso  would 
be  a  very  easy  side  jaunt.  The  next  morn- 
ing we  stopped  by  a  bookshop  to  get  an 
Italian  guide  book  but  found  only  a  few 
lines  on  Canova  in  an  out-of-date  travel 
book.  Possagno  was  not  even  listed. 

After  a  morning  in  Padua,  we  arrived  in 
Treviso  at  about  2:30  p.m.  The  tourist 
office,  as  well  as  the  museum,  was  closed 
for  lunch  and  a  policeman  with  whom  we 
talked  knew  nothing  of  the  Canova  exhibit. 
His  face  lightened  as  he  showed  us  on  the 
map  where  Possagno  was  and  said  perhaps 
we  should  go  there  to  find  out.  Finally  a 
travel  bureau  opened  next  door;  they 
knew  nothing  of  the  exhibit.  The  four  in 

j  charge  of  the  bureau  were  kind  enough  to 
draw  a  chart  showing  two  routes  to 
Possagno,  each  of  which  led  through  at 
least  four  small  towns  and  on  the  chart 
they  had  indicated  one  route  as  very  good 
and  the  other  as  very  bad.  The  afternoon 
was  passing  quickly  but  we  decided  to  go. 
With  a  map  that  showed  only  a  few  of  the 

!  roads  we  were  to  follow,  we  started  out  in 
the  direction  of  the  good  roads.  After 
thirty  miles  we  reached  Montebelluna, 
having  passed  by  the  famous  Villa  Barbara 
designed  by  Palladio  and  decorated  by 


Veronese.  The  next  town  of  any  size  was 
Asola,  perched  on  the  side  of  a  mountain 
with  very  narrow  and  steep  streets  and  an 
ancient  castle  standing  guard  above  the 
town.  Our  small  French  car  would  barely 
squeeze  through  the  narrow  streets.  The 
infrequent  road  signs  were  rusting  and 
falling  to  the  wayside,  so  it  was  necessary 
to  ask  directions  again.  We  were  directed 
down  a  narrow  street  and  suddenly  found 
ourselves  on  a  bumpy  dirt  road;  one  of  the 
good  roads  recommended  in  Treviso!  We 
drove  on,  passing  lumbering  white  oxen 
pulling  wooden  carts;  farmers,  even  here 
in  the  hills,  proudly  peddling  their  bicycles 
loaded  with  wooden  farm  implements, 
rakes  and  hoes.  The  road  became  increas- 
ingly narrow  and  steep,  and  v\e  were  sure 
that  the  directions  were  wrong;  the  moun- 
tains, described  in  one  of  the  guide  books 
as  one  of  the  principal  strongholds  of  the 
Italian  front  during  1917-18,  were  close 
around  us.  We  stopped  again  and  a  farmer 
indicated  with  a  slice  of  his  arm  a  left  turn 
several  forks  ahead.  We  drove  on  and 
suddenly  in  the  distance  the  temple  of 
Canova  could  be  seen  crowning  a  hill — a 
strange  monument  in  an  unexpected  place 
— recognizable  from  the  miniature  drawing 
in  the  pamphlet.  The  only  street  in  Pos- 
sagno turns  and  runs  down  a  slight  hill. 
The  studio  and  birthplace  of  Canova  is 
below  street  level  on  the  right  and  the 
temple  hill  rises  to  the  left  of  the  street.  It 
was  clear  that  Possagno  was  not  quite  ready 
to  entertain  visitors  although  eight  months 
of  the  anniversary  year  had  passed.  A  few 
workmen  were  making  the  street  passable, 
lightposts  lay  on  their  sides  in  the  ditches, 
and  a  semblance  of  a  parking  lot  had  been 
starteJ.  The  corner  room  of  an  old  building 


27 


had  a  new  yellow  and  red  sign  over  the 
door  which  read  "Ufficio  di  Turismo"  in 
eight-inch  letters. 

"Canova,"  the  man  in  the  office  repeated 
after  us  as  he  rose  from  his  chair  which  was 
propped  against  the  wall,  "yes,  next  door," 
and  he  pointed  to  the  large  stucco  rec- 
tangular building  next  door.  "It's  open," 
he  said  proudly.  We  pushed  open  the 
small  white  door  over  which  hung  a  dry 
withered  wreath;  a  woman  came  forth, 
greeted  us  and  collected  the  entrance  fee 
of  a  hundred  lire;  then  she  called  her 
husband  who  led  us  past  the  cast  of  a  giant 
sandaled  foot  and  then  into  a  courtyard.  A 
large  banana  tree  stood  in  one  corner,  and 
fig  trees  and  flowers  grew  in  the  open  court. 
He  led  us  down  the  back  wing  of  the  build- 
ing, opened  the  door  and  ushered  us  into  a 
large  vaulted  room  which  contained  most 
of  Canova's  working  models — models  of 
Cupid  and  Psyche,  Pauline  Borghese, 
Clement  XIII — and  some  very  large 
figures  as  well  as  relief  sculptures  along  the 
wall.  The  only  other  people  there  that  day 
were  two  young  German  tourists  who  had 
followed  us  up  the  road  on  a  motorcycle 
and  into  the  museum.  We  aroused  a  small 
guard  who  was  sleeping  behind  one  of  the 
casts  and  he  followed  us  around  and  pointed 
to  the  "Do  Not  Touch"  signs.  Even  though 
the  room  was  large,  it  was  not  quite  large 
enough  to  house  all  the  casts  comfortably. 
They  were  crowded  together  and  pushed 
toward  the  center  in  several  places  where 
the  walls  were  being  painted.  George 
Washington  sat  at  one  end  of  the  room 
near  the  niche  containing  the  large  model  of 
Hercules  and  Lichas  (figure  2).  This, 
the  working  model  which  served  for  the 
pointing-up  of  the  original  marble  in  1816- 
1820,  contains  much  more  detail  than  the 


cast  in  the  Hall  of  History.  We  wandered 
among  the  chalky  white  statues  (there  were  a 
few  marble  works),  and  we  could  not  help 
but  wonder  how  the  models  were  trans- 
ported to  and  from  Possagno.  The  plank 
road  from  Fayetteville  to  Raleigh  was 
nothing  to  compare  to  the  winding  narrow 
roads  leading  to  Possagno. 

Knowing  that  there  had  been  some 
correspondence  from  the  North  Carolina 
legislature  and  Thomas  Jefferson  who  had 
recommended  Canova  to  create  the  statue 
of  Washington,  we  inquired  of  the  woman 
who  had  let  us  in  if  the  letters  were  avail- 
able; whereupon  she  led  us  into  the  ground 
floor  of  the  second  wing,  evidently  Canova's 
living  quarters.  There,  in  a  series  of  small 
rooms,  were  many  sketches  and  small 
models  in  terra  cotta  and  plaster  and  a  few 
paintings.  Over  one  door  a  portrait  by  Sir 
Thomas  Lawrence  shows  the  sculptor  in 
a  very  handsome  pose.  One  could  under- 
stand how  his  personal  appearance  must 
have  commanded  the  attention  of  the 
aristocrats  surrounding  him  -kings,  queens, 
Pope  Pius  VII,  who  made  him  Marquis 
and  Count  Palatine,  Pauline  Bonaparte, 
the  Princess  Borghese,  portrayed  by  him 
as  Venus  Victrix  who  reclines  nude  on  a 
couch.  Some  of  the  models  were  in  glass 
cases,  but  most  of  them  were  sitting  on 
makeshift  wooden  planks  toppling  on  kegs 
and  barrels.  We  studied  these  and  then 
were  taken  upstairs  to  additional  rooms 
filled  with  similar  items  from  his  produc- 
tion. In  the  third  room  we  came  upon 
three  small  studies  of  George  Washington. 
One  was  a  terra  cotta  sketch  about 
one-fifth  life  size  which  obviously  was 
the  first  sketch  made  for  the  figure 
and  drapery;  it  gives  one  a  glimpse  of  the 
true  creative  skill  of  the  artist  before  the 


29 


30 


addition  of  those  forced  elements  of  the 
neoclassicists  (see  figure  3).  The  next  piece, 
a  small  nude  study  for  the  figure,  was  a 
studio  pose  indicating  the  extensive  and 
rigid  steps  taken  by  artists  in  the  early 
nineteenth  century  for  academic  accuracy 
(see  figure  4).  The  third  study  of  the  same 
size  was  very  close  to  the  finished  work 
except  for  changes  in  drapery  and  the 
placement  of  the  bound  sword  which  lay 
under  the  feet  of  the  subject  (see  figure  5). 
Canova  used  a  study  made  from  a  portrait 
bust  by  Ceracchi  for  his  basic  information 
on  Washington's  face.4  He  found  the  plaster 
bust  in  a  provincial  museum  in  France  and 
made  a  study  from  it  with  slight  alterations. 
Canova's  study  of  the  bust  is  also  preserved 
in  Possagno.  (See  figure  6.)  Ceracchi's 
original  marble  went  to  the  king  of  Spain. 
The  next  room  contained  a  canopy  bed  and 
some  of  Canova's  personal  effects,  a  death 
mask  and  several  of  his  oil  paintings.  We 
stood  in  the  hallway  and  in  our  broken 
Italian,  dictionary  in  hand,  were  finally  able 
to  communicate  to  the  woman  that  we  were 
from  Raleigh,  North  Carolina,  and  we 
were  interested  in  seeing  any  correspond- 
ence concerning  the  Washington  statue,  if 
it  were  available.  The  woman  again  called 
out  the  window  to  her  husband,  who 
graciously  came  and  told  us  that  the  draw- 
ings, letters  and  other  items  were  in 
another  exhibition  in  Bassano  del  Grappa, 
a  town  about  twelve  miles  over  the  moun- 
tains.  We   asked   if  we   could  purchase 


4  Many  replicas  of  the  popular  Ceracchi  bust  were 
made  early  in  the  nineteenth  century. 

5  Since  the  writing  of  this  article  the  well-known 
Canova  scholar  Elena  Bassi  has  published  La  Gipsoteca 
di  Possagno,  Sculture  e  dipinti  di  Antonio  Canova,  Venezia, 
Neri  Pozza  Editor,  1957.  It  was  published  by  Foundation 
Giorgio  Cini,  Venice.  Another  book  by  Elena  Bassi  is 
Canova,  published  in  1943  by  Istituto  Italiano  D'Arti 
Grafiche,  Roma. 


photographs  of  the  Washington  studies. 
They  indicated  that  the  large  cast  had  been 
photographed,  and  we  were  given  a  post 
card  of  it;  but  no  photographs  had  been 
made  of  the  other  studies.  Thanks  to  the 
generous  co-operation  of  Dr.  Michelangelo 
Muraro,  superintendent  of  monuments, 
Venice,  who  arranged  through  the  Istituto 
di  Storia  dell'Arte  Fondazione  Giorgio 
Cini  di  Venezia  to  have  photographs  made, 
we  are  able  to  include  a  number  of  photo- 
graphs heretofore  unpublished  in  America.'' 
By  this  time  it  was  growing  dark,  but  we 
asked  directions  to  Bassano  del  Grappa  and 
were  told  that  the  roads  were  impassable 

Fig.  6.  Model  after  Ceracchi  for  likeness  of 
George  Washington.  Canova  Museum,  Pos- 
sagno. 

Photograph  courtesy  of  the  Istituto  di  Storia  dell'Arte 
Fondazione  Giorgio  Cini  di  Venezia. 


31 


at  present  and  that  we  could  not  get 
through  with  a  car.  Giving  up  the  idea  of 
going  over  to  Bassano  del  Grappa,  we 
asked  about  the  temple  on  the  hill.  The 
woman  said  that  it  was  the  tomb  Canova 
had  built  for  himself.  "Canova  is  not  buried 
in  Venice  then?"  we  asked.  With  gestures 
the  woman  told  us  that  Canova  was  buried 
in  Possagno,  but  his  hands  were  buried  in 
Venice. 

Returning  to  the  car,  we  drove  up  the 
wide  terraced  gravel  road  to  the  temple. 
The  clouds  nearly  touched  the  dome,  and 
a  few  drops  of  rain  began  to  fall.  A  small 


door  on  one  side  was  open;  we  entered  a 
brightly  decorated  church  with  a  gold 
coffered  dome.  On  one  side  was  the  marble 
tomb  of  Canova  with  a  fresh  wreath  upon 
it.  Tall  dark  junipers  bordered  the  path 
leading  from  the  temple  to  the  top  of  the 
adjoining  mountain.  Some  small  children 
were  playing  with  the  gravel  on  the  steps 
of  the  temple. 

We  drove  away  from  Possagno  as  the 
threatening  sky  broke  and  large  drops  of 
rain  splashed  down,  further  delaying  work 
for  the  two  hundredth  anniversary  cele- 
bration of  the  birth  of  Antonio  Canova. 


32 


COPTIC  TEXTILES 


By  Adele  Coulin  Weibel 


An  outstanding  place  in  the  history  of 
textile  art  belongs  to  the  so-called  Coptic 
textiles,  for  they  demonstrate  an  immense 
step  in  the  evolution  from  extrinsic  to  in- 
trinsic decoration,  from  embroidery  on  a 
finished  fabric  to  the  production  of  ground 
and  pattern  in  one  phase.  In  a  ground 
weave  of  plain  linen  the  weaver  inserted 
his  little  pictures,  with  bobbins  strung  with 
wool  threads,  one  bobbin  for  each  color, 
and  ran  them  across  the  warp  only  as  far 
as  that  special  shade  was  needed.  A  tapestry 
woven  ornament  on  a  wall  hanging  looked 
like  a  stone  mosaic  on  the  floor,  as  both 
techniques  shared  a  similar  difficulty  for 
the  designers,  angularity  of  outline.  How 
successfully  they  dealt  with  this  problem  is 
well  illustrated  by  the  fine  groups  of  textiles 
presented  to  the  North  Carolina  Museum 
of  Art  by  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Fred  Olsen  and 
by  the  late  Mrs.  Katherine  Pendleton 
Arrington. 

In  Egypt  the  weaving  of  wool  tapestry 
for  ornaments  into  linen  fabrics  began 
with  the  Hellenistic  period  and  continued 
through  the  centuries  of  Roman  overlord- 
ship.  The  present-day  name  of  these 
fabrics,  "Coptic,"  refers  them  to  the  Copts. 
This  name  is  a  medieval  European  form  of 
the  Arabic  Kubt,  which  is  derived  from  the 
Greek  aiguptioi,  Egyptians;  it  was  used 
especially  to  designate  the  native  Christian 
population.  When  Egypt  was  conquered  by 
the  Arabs  in  641,  the  Coptic  craftsmen 

1  Oval  motive,  3d  to  4th  century.  Accession  number 
G.57.14.6;  diameter  16  inches.  Gift  of  Dr.  and  Mrs. 
Fred  Olsen. 

2  Round  motive,  3d  to  4th  century.  Accession  number 
G.57.14.1;  diameter  8  inches.  Gift  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Fred 
Olsen. 


continued  working  for  their  new  masters, 
still  weaving  polychrome  tapestry  borders 
into  linen  fabrics,  but  the  beautifully  tinted 
wool  was  gradually  superseded  by  silk.  The 
best  Coptic  textiles  were  woven  during  the 
fourth  and  fifth  centuries,  when  mono- 
chrome and  polychrome  details  were  some- 
times combined  in  one  ornament. 

Three  specimens  represent  the  earliest 
type  of  decoration.  It  is  executed  of  one 
color  only,  which  originally  looked  like 
true  purple  but  which,  due  to  chemical 
action  while  buried,  has  darkened  rather 
than  faded  to  a  bluish  or  blackish  brown. 
The  true  shellfish  purple  was  a  jealously 
kept  secret  of  the  Phoenicians,  whose  price 
was  beyond  the  means  of  the  average 
citizen,  so  the  Egyptian  dyers  used  instead 
a  combination  of  madder  and  indigo.  Onto 
this  monochrome  background  the  weaver 
designed  a  pattern  of  scrolls  and  inter- 
lacings  with  the  "flying  needle,"  a  bobbin 
strung  with  fine  white  linen  threads,  which 
crossed  freely  in  every  direction  over  the 
solid  tapestry  ground.  Three  specimens 
illustrate  the  wide  variety  of  geometric 
motives  used  in  these  designs.  They  are 
ingeniously  combined  and  already  point  to 
a  blending  of  Hellenistic  and  Near  Eastern 
influences.  There  is  an  oval  ornament  1 
which  shows,  within  a  frame  of  running 
waves,  an  octagonal  star  composed  of 
small  squares  of  alternating  patterns,  and 
four  triangles  with  groups  of  roundels  in 
the  spandrels.  Another  ornament  looks 
somewhat  like  a  porringer  with  two 
handles, 2  with  remains  of  a  decoration  of 
interlaced  ribbons  and  a  string  of  beads 


33 


Fig.  2.  Textile  Fragment.  Coptic,  fourth  to  fifth  century  A.  D.  8  x  15  inches.  Gift  of  Dr.  and  Mrs. 
Fred  Olsen,  Guilford,  Connecticut. 


A  star-shaped  ornament  3  shows  a  closely 
related  intertwined  motive  within  a  more 
lightly  indicated  string  of  beads,  and  a 
framework  with  vine  leaves.  All  three 
fabrics  belong  to  the  early  period  of  the 
third  to  fourth  century. 

The  influence  of  Hellenistic  art  makes 
itself  felt  in  a  square  ornament,4  which 
shows  a  winged  genius  in  a  framework  of 
roundels  of  intertwisted  ribbons  filled  alter- 
nately with  vine  leaves  and  plain  round 
shapes,  and  a  string  of  beads.  The  genius 
is  a  delightful  boy,  running  with  wide- 


3  Star-shaped  motive,  3d  to  4th  century.  Accession 
number  G.57.14.11;  height  10  inches,  width  8  inches. 
Gift  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Fred  Olsen. 

4  Square  motive,  4th  century;  Accession  number, 
G.57.14.9;  height  8  inches,  width  7  inches.  Gift  of  Dr. 
and  Mrs.  Fred  Olsen. 

5  Horizontal  band,  4th  to  5th  century.  Accession 
number  G. 57. 14.7;  height  8  inches,  length  15  inches. 
Gift  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Fred  Olsen. 


spread  arms  and  wings  through  a  landscape 
that  is  just  barely  indicated  by  a  few  plants. 
In  its  sheer  beauty  this  little  panel  fore- 
shadows the  finest  tondi  of  the  Italian 
renaissance.  (See  figure  1.) 

A  rather  unusual  border,  probably  part 
of  a  curtain,  shows  an  attempt  at  combining 
a  little  color  with  the  preponderant  purple.5 
The  main  band  shows  a  spirited  race  of 
animals,  lions  running  to  right,  rabbits  to 
left,  each  enclosed  in  a  leafy  oval.  The 
designer  liked  symmetry,  so  he  provided 
the  rabbits  with  nice  long  tails.  The  framing 
bands  show  tendrils  of  a  rare  grace,  with 
red  and  green  leaves  on  a  wavy  stem  of 
light  brown.  This  is  a  real  brown  shade, 
not  faded  purple.  (See  figure  2.) 

Another  monochrome  border,  woven  as 
a  double  band  with  the  units  of  design 
shifted  above  one  another,  must  be  dated 


35 


Fig.  4.  Panel  from  Tunic.  Coptic,  fifth  century  A.  D.  11  x  14  inches.  Gift  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Fred 
Olsen,  Guilford,  Connecticut. 


in  the  late  sixth  or  early  seventh  century, 
not  long  before  the  Islamic  conquest.6  There 
is  little  left  of  the  Hellenistic  spirit  beyond 
the  groups  of  three  small  leaves  growing 
from  the  rims  of  the  octagons,  and  they 
evoke  a  slight  feeling  of  nostalgia.  By  using 
purple  and  white  wefts  in  alternate  lines 

6  Horizontal  border,  6th  to  7th  cenutry.  Accession 
number  G57.14.4;  height  6  inches,  length  12  inches. 
Gift  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Fred  Olsen. 

7  Square  motif,  5th  century.  Accession  number 
G. 57. 14. 5;  size  8  by  8  inches.  Gift  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Fred 
Olsen. 


for  the  background  of  the  animals,  the 
weaver  produced  a  new  color  effect.  The 
cut-off  "hedge"  or  "comb"  at  both  ends 
may  have  belonged  to  an  alternate  pattern 
between  groups  of  octagons. 

We  return  to  the  square  ornaments 
which  were  such  an  important  part  of  the 
decoration  of  men's  and  women's  dresses. 
A  specially  delightful  specimen  has  its 
center  in  purple,  the  wide  frame  in  a  variety 
of  colors.7  Here  a  Nilotic  scene  is  repre- 


36 


sented,  the  water  is  shown  golden  yellow- 
perhaps  a  hue  the  Nile  takes  on  at  sunset. 
Fishes  large  and  small  swim  among  the 
lotus  plants;  people  sit  in  little  boats.  The 
center  square  is  almost  covered  by  a  blackish 
roundel,  and  here  a  horseman  goes  hunting. 
A  comparison  with  the  winged  boy  of  the 
earlier  specimen  shows  the  decline  of 
Coptic  design.  (See  figure  3.) 

Perhaps  it  would  be  truer  to  consider 
the  change  as  due  to  neglect  of  design  and 
stressing  of  coloristic  effects.  A  typical 
example  is  a  square  ornament  with  areas 
of  black,  yellow  and  red8.  Originally, 
when  the  black  was  purple,  it  must  have 
been  even  more  of  a  color  orgy.  The  figure 
in  the  center  combines  all  these  colors,  with 
green  for  the  waistband  and  the  bag  it 
carries. 

A  rectangular  motif  9  combines  a  central 
quatrefoil  with  a  border  that  may  also 
have  occurred  at  the  neckline  or  shoulder 
bands,  perhaps  at  the  hemline.  The  orna- 
ment combines  blue  and  red  in  the  border 
and  center.  The  putto  is  fairly  well  designed, 
and  the  border  decoration  has  a  jeweled 
effect. 

Complete  tunics  are  seldom  found,  but 
now  and  then  the  front  panels  are  preserved, 
or  enough  of  them  remains  to  show  the 
type  of  decoration.  Thus  a  front  panel  10 
shows  both  shoulder  bands  and  the  neck- 

8  Square  motif,  6th  to  7th  century.  Accession  number 
G.57.14.8;  size  5  by  5  inches.  Gift  of  Dr.  and  Mrs. 
Fred  Olsen. 

9  Rectangular  motif,  6th  to  7th  century.  Accession 
number  G. 52. 1.4;  height  13  inches,  width  15J/2  inches. 
Gift  of  Mrs.  Katherine  Pendleton  Arrington. 

10  Panel  of  a  tunic,  5th  to  6th  century.  Accession 
number  G. 57. 14.2;  length  18  inches,  width  11  inches. 
Gift  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Fred  Olsen. 

11  Fragmentary  panel  of  a  tunic,  5th  c  entury.  Accession 
number  G. 57. 14. 3;  height  11  inches,  width  14  inches. 
Gift  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Fred  Olsen. 

12  Panel  of  a  tunic,  5th  to  6th  century.  Accession  num- 
ber G.52.1.3;  height  17  inches,  width  10j^  inches.  Gift 
of  Mrs.  Katherine  Pendleton  Arrington. 


line.  There  is  a  main  border  with  a  pattern 
of  zigzag  lines  and  triangles  on  a  red 
ground,  with  a  lace-like  edging  of  dark 
green,  faded  to  a  greyish  tint.  Across  the 
front,  at  the  neck  between  the  main  border 
and  its  edging,  an  extra  band  is  added 
which  shows  rose  red  motives  on  dark  blue 
ground. 

An  innovation  of  the  fifth  century, 
obviously  the  result  of  influence  from 
Syria,  was  the  use  of  wool  for  the  entire 
tunic.  Even  in  Egypt  there  are  cold  days. 
The  Hellenistic  population  had  been  satis- 
fied with  linen  fabrics  woven  with  long 
loops  that  were  produced  by  wefts  pulled 
up  at  intervals,  much  like  the  modern 
bath  towels.  But  now  the  Copts  liked  the 
comfort  of  woolen  tunics,  which  are  often 
dyed  a  bright  yellow,  green,  red,  or  blue. 
They  are  rep  woven  throughout,  on  linen 
warps.  The  large  fragment  of  a  front  panel 
indicates  the  former  splendor  of  such  a 
tunic.11  On  the  dark  blue  ground  the 
decoration  is  designed  lightly,  in  tones  of 
beige  and  brown.  The  shoulder  bands 
show  nude  figures  in  dancing  costume.  At 
the  neckline  three  pendant  medallions  look 
like  a  jeweled  necklace,  like  that  worn  by 
the  Empress  Theodora  on  the  mosaic  in 
the  church  of  San  Vitale  at  Ravenna. 
(See  figure  4.) 

Another  all  wool  tunic  was  red,  with  its 
front  decoration  well  preserved  on  a  large 
panel.12  Here  the  design  of  the  shoulder 
bands  is  continued  across  the  neckline.  In 
purple  (now  almost  black)  on  beige  ground, 
soldiers  performing  a  Pyrrhic  dance  and 
diverse  animals  are  shown  in  a  lively  med- 
ley, three  birds  bow  gravely,  and  simple 
beaded  lines  make  a  handsome  finish. 
(See  figure  5.) 

Christian  subjects  occur  rarely  in  these 


37 


Fig.  5.  Panel  from  Tunic.  Coptic,  fifth  to  sixth  century  A.  D.  17  x  \0}4  inches  (reproduced  hori- 
zontally). Gift  of  Mrs.  Katherine  Pendleton  Arrington,  Warrenton. 


Coptic  fabrics.  But  a  shoulder  band  13 
shows  a  saint,  on  light  rose  red  ground,  set 
off  against  a  lozenge  design  on  dark  blue 
with  flowers  and  animals. 

A  Christian  saint,  this  time  in  half 
length,  is  depicted  as  the  main  decoration 
of  a  sleeve.14  She  looks  like  an  orant  with 
arms  raised.  But  she  is  much  older  than 


13  Shoulder  band,  6th  to  7th  century.  Accession  num- 
ber G. 57. 14. 10;  length  18  inches,  width  3  inches.  Gift 
of  Dr  and  Mrs.  Fred  Olsen. 

14  Sleeve  ornament  and  waist  band,  6th  to  7th  century. 
Accession  number  G. 52. 1.2.  Sleeve  ornament  length 
11  inches,  width  3H  inches;  waist  band  length  6H 
inches,  width  2  inches.  Gift  of  Mrs.  Katherine  Pendleton 
Arrington. 

16  Panel  with  allover  design,  6th  to  7th  century. 
Accession  number  G. 52. 1.1;  length  9%  inches,  width 
31  Yi  inches.  Gift  of  Mrs.  Katherine  Pendleton  Arrington. 


Christianity;  she  is  a  nature  goddess, 
possibly  Atargatis  herself,  holding  up  with 
both  hands  a  scarf  filled  with  the  fruits  of 
the  earth,  her  gift  to  humanity.  This  band 
has  a  red  ground;  the  waistband  below  it 
shows,  on  darkest  blue,  part  of  a  handsome 
allover  design,  probably  adapted  from  a 
shuttle-woven  silk  fabric.  (See  figure  6.) 

And  lastly  there  is  a  panel  which  is  a 
clear  copy  of  a  silk  fabric.15  Jeweled  bands 
form  an  allover  diaper,  with  palmettes  and 
crosses. 

Fabrics  of  this  kind  must  have  looked 
good  to  the  conquering  Arabs,  and  it  is 
easy  to  understand  why  they  availed  them- 
selves  of  the   service   of  these  excellent 


38 


craftsmen,  the  Copts,  who  were  quite 
ready  to  adapt  their  art  to  the  creation  of 
designs  that  would  please  their  new  over- 
lords. 


Mrs.  Coulin  Weibel,  outstanding  American 
authority  on  early  textiles,  is  Curator  Emeritus 
of  Textiles  and  Near  Eastern  Art  at  the  Detroit 
Institute  of  Arts. 


Fig.  6.  Sleeve  Ornament  and  Waist  Band.  Coptic,  sixth  to  seventh  century  A.  D.  Top:  ly2  x  11 
inches;  bottom:  2x6^  inches.  Gift  of  Mrs.  Katherine  Pendleton  Arrington,  Warrenton. 


39 


Fig.  1.  Lyonel  Feininger  (American,  1871-1956),  The  Green  Bridge.  Signed  and  dated  1916.  Oil 
on  canvas,  A9j4  x  39^2  inches.  Gift  of  Mrs.  Ferdinand  Moller,  Cologne. 


40 


SOME  RECENT  ACCESSIONS  OF  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  PAINTING 


By  James  B.  Byrnes 


In  the  short  span  of  twenty  months  the 
Museum  has  received  the  gift  of  a  number 
of  outstanding  works  by  artists  of  the  twen- 
tieth century.  We  are  especially  grateful  to 
the  many  private  collectors  who  have 
donated  this  foundation  group  of  paintings 
around  which  a  significant  collection  can 
be  built. 

The  gifts  thus  far  represent  European 
and  American  art  over  a  forty-year  period 
with  examples  of  documentary,  as  well  as 
aesthetic,  importance.  The  earliest  canvas 
is  a  work  by  Lyonel  Feininger  dated 
1916,  "Die  Grime  Briicke"  or  "The  Green 
Bridge"  (figure  1).  The  title  has  a  timely 
interest  since  the  painting  was  received 
during  the  E.  L.  Kirchner  Exhibition,  the 
gift  of  Mrs.  Ferdinand  Moller  of  Cologne. 
In  1905  Kirchner  was  a  founder  of  the 
important  expressionist  group  called  "Die 
Briicke. "  Feininger,  who  is  alternately 
identified  with  American  and  German  art, 
has  provided  us  with  a  work  which  com- 
bines elements  of  earlier  Italian  futurism 
and  French  orphist  circular  interpene- 
trating plane  forms  with  an  almost  decora- 
tive use  of  color,  recalling  his  subtle  impact 
on  set  designers  for  expressionist  film  efforts 
of  the  time,  such  as  "The  Cabinet  of  Dr. 
Caligari,"  which  was  made  three  years 
after  our  painting  was  executed. 

Of  the  same  year  as  the  film,  the  Museum 
has  received  a  water  color  "Boats"  (figure 
2)  by  another  German  artist,  Max  Pech- 
stein,  who  was  also  identified  with  the 
Briicke  group,  having  joined  them  in  their 
first  exhibition  in  1906.  Pechstein  was 
perhaps  not  always  one  of  the  most  original 


Fig.  2.  Max  Pechstein  (German,  1881-1955), 
Boats.  Water  color,  14^  x  18  inches.  Gift  of 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  S.  J.  Levin,  St.  Louis. 


artists  in  the  group,  and  unlike  the  others, 
he  was  a  restless  personality,  travelling 
about  a  great  deal.  In  1915,  after  having 
been  held  in  the  Orient  because  of  the 
confusion  of  the  war,  he  sailed  to  San 
Francisco  where  he  spent  three  months, 
returning  to  Germany  to  enter  military 
service.  A  few  years  later,  he  began  to 
paint  his  earlier  remembered  travels — not 
always  with  great  success.  Our  water  color 
follows  this  period  when  he  again  turned 
his  talent  to  current  experience,  and  in  this 
painting  one  finds  evidence  of  the  calli- 
graphic brevity  which  stems  from  the  period 
of  his  association  with  the  Briicke  group. 
The  watercolor  is  the  gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
S.  J.  Levin  of  St.  Louis,  Missouri. 

With  the  exception  of  one  portrait  by 
Derain,  twentieth  (and  late  nineteenth) 
century   French   painting   and  sculpture 


41 


Fig.  3.  Jean  Helion  (French,  born  1904),  Untitled.  Oil  on  canvas,  51  x  64  inches.  Long-term  loan 
from  Miss  Peggy  Guggenheim,  Venice. 


were  unfortunately  not  represented  in  the 
Museum  until  Miss  Peggy  Guggenheim 
of  Venice  lent  the  canvas  by  Jean 
Helion,  "Untitled"  (figure  3),  which  will 
be  a  gift  to  the  Museum  in  due  time. 
Painted  in  1934,  this  handsome  abstraction 
dates  from  the  terminal  year  that  Helion 
was  active  in  the  abstraction-creation  group. 
In  this  painting  Helion  has  used  non- 
representational  forms  to  create  a  clean 
architectural    arrangement   of  shapes  in 


depth,  the  larger  vertical  monolithic  ele- 
ments almost  in  repose,  a  feeling  which  is 
heightened  by  the  active  horizontal  rec- 
tangular shapes  on  the  right.  It  is  a  gentle 
painting  executed  with  subtle  colorisms;  its 
purity  in  abstraction,  combined  with  ele- 
ments of  the  surreal,  suggests  a  dream 
landscape. 

Through  the  generosity  of  a  collector  who 
resides  in  this  city,  the  Museum  received 
the  gift  of  the  following  collection  of  out- 


42 


'■■i 


Fig.  4.  Mark  Toby  (American,  born  1890), 
Calligraphic  III.  Monoprint,  18  x  11^4  inches. 
Gift  of  an  anonymous  Raleigh  collector. 

standing  examples  of  American  contempor- 
ary art.  Two  works  in  the  group  are  by 
well-established  artists  from  the  northwest 
section  of  the  United  States  who,  aside 
from  their  geographical  proximity,  differ 
vastly  in  personality,  experience  and  phi- 
losophy. Mark  Toby's  life  has  centered 
around  Oriental  philosophy,  as  can  be 
seen  in  his  mystical  intuitive  monoprint 
"Calligraphic  III"  (figure  4),  which  demon- 
strates his  mastery  of  the  expressive  power 
of  simple  and  direct  brush  drawing. 
Softened  into  and  through  the  surface  of 
the  paper,  the  swinging  lines  and  shapes 
combine  into  a  joyous,  sparkling  little 
space-world.  An  entirely  opposite  person- 
ality is  the  late  C.  S.  Price,  whose  early 
training  and  experience  was  that  of  an  illus- 


trator, and  who  lived  a  great  part  of  his  life 
as  a  cowboy.  In  his  later  years  Price  painted 
a  number  of  canvases  using  figures  and 
animals  painted  in  large  flat  areas  of  muted 
color.  In  his  painting  "Two  Heads" 
(figure  5)  he  has  simplified  the  forms  to 
almost  sculptural  brevity,  hinting  at  an 
element  of  Christian  tragedy  not  unlike 
that  of  Rouault,  or  if  you  prefer,  Nolde. 
Price  is  an  example  of  an  important  original 
artist  whose  rank  has  been  established 
through  his  exhibitions  in  Portland  and 
New  York. 

Two  ink  drawings  with  water  color  "He 
de  France"  (figure  6)  and  "Untitled"  by 
Robert  Motherwell  are  welcome  items  in 
the  group  gift.  Motherwell,  who  lives  in 
New  York,  is  most  frequently  identified 
with  the  so-called  "School  of  New  York" 
which  came  to  the  fore  shortly  after  the 
close  of  World  War  II.  The  artists  of  the 
original  group  have  since  been  variously 
described  as  "non-objective"  or  "abstract- 
expressionist"  painters  in  the  popular  press, 
and  while  the  individual  artists  reject  such 
labelling,   it   is  difficult  to  find   a  more 


Fig.  6.  Robert  Motherwell  (American,  born 
1915),  He  de  France.  Ink  with  water  color,  7  x  10 
inches.  Gift  of  an  anonymous  Raleigh  collector. 


43 


Fig.  5.  C.  S.  Price  (American,  1874-1950),  Two  Heads.  Oil  on  board,  \5]/2  x  2034  inches.  Gift  of 
W.  R.  Valentiner,  Raleigh. 


appropriate  designation  for  Motherwell, 
Rothko,  DeKooning,  Pollock,  Kline  and 
other  artists  who  have  contributed  so  much 
to  American  (and  European)  painting  of 
our  time. 

Two  artists  from  the  western  part  of 
the  United  States,  Emerson  Woelffer 
and  Richard  Diebenkorn,  are  each  repre- 
sented by  major  oil  paintings,  Woelffer  by 
"The  Sea"  (figure  7)  and  Diebenkorn  by 


"Berkeley  No.  8"  (figure  8).  Both  artists 
have  also  been  referred  to  as  "non-ob- 
jective" painters,  despite  the  fact  that  each 
works  closely  with  the  experience  of  nature. 
Diebenkorn,  who  now  lives  and  teaches  in 
Berkeley,  California,  is  one  of  the  younger 
generation  of  painters  whose  recent  works 
include  more  figurative  elements  than 
before.  His  use  of  bold  slashing  forms, 
always  in  contrast  to  high-keyed  lyrical 


44 


Fig.  8.  Richard  Diebenkorn  (American,  born  1922),  Berkeley  No.  8.  Oil  on  canvas,  69*4  x  59^ 
inches.  Gift  of  W.  R.  Valentiner,  Raleigh. 


46 


color,  express  a  vigorous  and  youthfully 
romatic  creative  personality.  Woelffer  on 
the  other  hand  is  an  artist  of  more  extro- 
verted temperament.  His  use  of  brilliant 
color  applied  with  broad  energized  strokes 
evokes  the  inference  of  internal  and  exterior 
landscape,  whereas  Diebenkorn's  stratified 
forms  have  a  strong  subterranean  sug- 
gestion. Woelffer  is  presently  staying  on 
the  Isle  of  Ischia  off  the  Italian  coast, 
preparing  for  a  New  York  exhibition  in  the 
spring. 

Another  traveller  to  Italy,  William  Cong- 
don,  is  represented  by  a  painting,  "Piazza, 
Venice,"  1952,  a  gift  in  the  same  group. 
More  representational  in  execution,  artist 
Congdon's  painting  depicts  the  Piazza  San 
Marco  in  an  expressionist  linear  style  using 
monochromatic  earth  tones  with  silver  and 
gold.  This  painting  is  one  of  a  series  of 
views  of  Venice  painted  while  the  artist 
was  abroad  on  a  scholarship. 


An  ink  and  wash  study  (figure  9)  for 
Rico  Lebrun's  large  triptych  "The  Cruci- 
fixion" (which  has  recently  been  presented 
to  Syracuse  University)  is  the  gift  of 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  James  B.  Byrnes,  Raleigh. 
Lebrun  now  lives  and  works  in  Los  Angeles, 
where  in  1951  over  two  hundred  paintings 
and  drawings  comprising  "The  Cruci- 
fixion" were  first  shown  at  the  Los  Angeles 
County  Museum.  Since  that  time,  many 
of  the  most  important  elements  of  this 
powerful  work  have  been  acquired  by 
leading  museums.  Lebrun,  always  a  master 
of  drawing,  has  incorporated  in  our  sketch 
the  ideas  which  climaxed  the  Crucifixion 
series  in  the  large  panel  mentioned  above. 

The  American  artists  mentioned  thus 
far  are  all  in  mid-  or  late  career  (one  or  two 
have  lived  out  their  lives),  and  most  are 
represented  in  major  museums  and  private 
collections.  However,  the  Museum  is 
pleased  to  have  examples  of  works  by  the 


Fig.  9.  Rico  Lebrun  (American,  born  Italy,  1900),  The  Crucifixion.  Ink  and  wash,  11  x  23  inches. 
Gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  James  B.  Byrnes,  Raleigh. 


47 


Fig.  10.  Felix  Pasilis  (American,  born  1922),  Palm  Frond.  Oil  on  canvas,  43  x  51  inches.  Gift  of  Mr. 
James  I.  Merrill,  New  York. 


younger  generation  of  artists,  many  of 
whom  have  come  to  attention  in  the  past 
few  years.  Through  the  generous  co-opera- 
tion of  John  Myers  of  the  Tibor  de  Nagy 
Gallery,  New  York,  this  Museum  received 
three  paintings  by  these  younger  artists, 
the  gift  of  Mr.  James  I.  Merrill  of  New 
York.  By  and  large,  these  young  painters 
draw  more  readily  from  the  visual  world, 
encouraging  objects  to  play  a  vital  role  in 
their  work.  "Palm  Frond"  (figure  10)  by 


Felix  Pasilis  shows  an  assemblage  of  still 
life  objects,  painted  with  original  gusto, 
using  brilliant  and  at  times,  almost  fluores- 
cent color  which  provides  us  with  an 
intensely  dramatic  experience  with  objects 
of  almost  neutral  concern.  Grace  Hartigan 
is  represented  by  the  painting  "Interior 
with  Mexican  Doll"  (figure  11).  Like 
many  of  today's  artists,  Miss  Hartigan 
paints  large  canvases,  and  while  this  always 
brings  to  mind  the  question  of  appropriate- 


48 


work  also  illustrates  the  tendency  among 
the  younger  painters  of  today  to  use 
stronger,  almost  strident,  primary  color  to 
intensify  the  paintings'  content. 

The  gift  of  Mrs.  Barbara  Wescott  of 
Clinton,  New  Jersey,  is  a  water  color  (figure 
12)  by  Robert  Andrew  Parker,  who  enjoys 
recognition  as  an  illustrator  as  well  as  an 
artist  and  teacher.  Working  with  bristling, 
blurred  ink  and  water  color,  Parker  grows 
out  of  the  tradition  of  Demuth  and  the 
early  George  Grosz,  creating  apocryphal 
history  and  incongruous  figures  for  his 
subject  theme.  In  the  case  of  our  water  color 
"Some  People  on  the  Beach,"  one  is  con- 
scious of  a  strong  sculptural  quality,  the 
result  of  rinsing  the  surface  color  so  that 
the  figures  merge  as  they  would  under 
strong  sunlight. 

The  latest  accession  is  an  oil  by  Charles 
Shaw  of  New  York  which  comes  as  the  gift 


Fig.  13.  Charles  Shaw  (American,  born  1892),  Dawn  of  Genesis.  Oil  on  canvas,  40  x  80  inches. 
Gift  of  Miss  Georgette  Passedoit,  New  York. 


* 


Fig.  12.  Robert  Andrew  Parker  (American, 
born  1928),  Some  People  at  the  Beach.  Water  color, 
2\}4  x  31  inches.  Gift  of  Mrs.  Barbara  Wescott, 
Clinton,  New  Jersey. 

ness  of  scale,  the  free-swinging  manner  of 
combined  painting  and  drawing  would 
seem  to  require  a  greater  area  to  carry 
forward  the  artist's  total  intention.  Her 


49 


of  Miss  Georgette  Passedoit  of  New  York. 
Shaw,  born  in  1892,  studied  art  in  Europe 
and  America  and  has  exhibited  with  the 
American  Abstract  Artists'  Group  since 
1937.  His  painting  "Dawn  of  Genesis"  of 
1956  (figure  13)  recalls  the  long  tradition 
of  abstract  art  in  this  country,  since  in  our 
painting  one  can  detect  an  original  artist 
who  invokes  the  tradition  of  such  earlier 
artists  as  Arthur  Dove,  Marsden  Hartley, 
and  their  contemporaries.  In  his  painting 
Shaw  uses  metaphoric  shapes  suggestive  of 
blooming  flowers  against  sky  forms.  The 
mood  of  the  canvas  is  somber,  almost  dis- 


quieting, connecting  it  with  the  symbolist 
aesthetic  which  continues  to  engage  many 
original  artists. 

After  reviewing  the  variety  and  scope  of 
these  recent  gift  paintings,  it  is  somewhat 
surprising  to  find  that  in  this  short  time 
twentieth  century  art  has  become  so  well 
represented  in  our  collection;  this  is  not 
to  say  that  we  have  more  than  a  happy 
beginning.  It  is  our  sincere  hope  that  we 
can  begin  to  acquire  outstanding  con- 
temporary sculpture  as  well  as  to  add  to 
this  foundation  collection  of  paintings. 


50 


REGISTRAR'S  REPORT  OF  NEW  ACQUISITIONS 
July  16,  1957,  to  March  4,  1958 


American  Paintings 

William  Stanley  Haseltine  (1835-1900), 
"Amain,  Valle  della  Molina."  Gift  of  Mrs. 
Helen  Haseltine  Plowden,  Boston  (G.57.- 
24.1).  Water  color  on  paper,  h:18J/2,  w:23 
inches.  Dated  1856.  Exhib.:  Mint  Museum 
of  Art,  Charlotte,  North  Carolina,  1957. 

Charles  Green  Shaw  (born  1892),  "Dawn 
of  Genesis."  Gift  of  Miss  Georgette  Passe- 
doit,  New  York  (G.57.29.1).  Canvas,  h:40, 
w:80  inches.  Signed;  dated  on  reverse,  1956. 

Man  Ray  (born  1890),  "Diderot's 
Harpsichord  or  The  Merchant  of  Venice." 
Gift  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Paul  Wescher,  Santa 
Monica  (G. 57. 30.1).  Canvas,  h:36,  w:30 
inches.  Signed  and  dated  1948.  Coll.:  Mrs. 
Mary  Stothart,  Santa  Monica.  Lit.:  Paul 
Wescher,  "Man  Ray  as  Painter,"  Magazine 
of  Art,  Vol.  46,  No.  1  (Jan.  1953),  pp. 
31-37  (illus.  p.  36). 

Samuel  Koch  (born  1887),  "Park  Scene 
with  Boats."  Gift  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Paul 
Wescher,  Santa  Monica  (G. 57. 30. 2).  Can- 
vas, h:26,  w:32  inches.  Signed. 

Frank  London  (1876-1945),  "Song  Sil- 
enced." Gift  of  Mrs.  Frank  M.  London 
and  Mr.  Marsden  London,  Woodstock, 
New  York  (G. 57. 31.1).  Canvas,  h:56, 
w:443^  inches.  Signed  and  dated  1938. 
Exhib.:  Frank  London,  A  Retrospective 
Showing  of  His  Painting,  Person  Hall  Art 
Gallery,  Chapel  Hill,  1947;  North  Carolina 
State  Art  Gallery,  Raleigh,  1948. 

Lyonel  Feininger  (1871-1956),  "The 
Green  Bridge."  Gift  of  Mrs.  Ferdinand 
Moller,  Cologne  (G.57.38.1).  Canvas, 
h:493^,  w:39^  inches.  Signed  and  dated 
1916. 


Russell  W.  Arnold  (contemporary), 
"Painting  No.  7."  Purchase  award  (57.- 

42.1)  .  Canvas,  h:70M,  w:4938  inches. 
Signed.  Exhib.:  North  Carolina  Artists' 
Annual  Competition,  North  Carolina  Mu- 
seum of  Art,  1957  (cat.  2). 

William  Congdon  (born  1912),  "Piazza, 
Venice."  Gift  of  anonymous  collector, 
Raleigh  (G. 57. 34.1).  Oil  on  masonite, 
h:  1 5 3^2,  w:17  inches.  Signed  and  dated 
1952. 

C.  S.  Price  (1874-1950),  "Two  Heads." 
Gift  of  W.  R.  Valentiner,  Raleigh  (G.57.- 

34.2)  .  Oil  on  board,  h :  1 6,  w:20  inches. 
Signed.  Exhib.:  C.  S.  Price,  1874-1950, 
A  Memorial  Exhibition,  Seattle  Art  Mu- 
seum, 1951  (cat.  54). 

Richard  Diebenkorn  (born  1922), 
"Berkeley  No.  8."  Gift  of  W.  R.  Valen- 
tiner, Raleigh  (G. 57. 34. 3).  Oil  on  canvas, 
h:69,  w:59  inches.  Initialed  and  dated  54. 

John  Grillo  (born  1917),  "Untitled." 
Gift  of  anonymous  collector,  Raleigh 
(G.57.34.4).  Gouache,  h:25,  w:20  inches. 
Signed  and  dated  1949. 

Robert  Motherwell  (born  1915),  "He  de 
France."  Gift  of  anonymous  collector, 
Raleigh  (G. 57. 34. 6).  Water  color  on  paper, 
h:7  3/g,  w:10J4  inches.  Signed. 

Robert  Motherwell  (born  1915),  "Unti- 
tled." Gift  of  anonymous  collector,  Raleigh 
(G. 57. 34. 7).  Paper,  h:10}  2,  w:8:5  ,  inches. 
Signed  and  dated  1945. 

Emerson  Woelffer  (contemporary),  "The 
Sea."  Gift  of  anonymous  collector,  Raleigh 
(G. 57. 34. 8).  Oil  and  collage  on  canvas, 
h:36,  w:29K  inches.  Signed. 

Ynez  Johnston    (born    1920),  "Alpine 


51 


Village."  Gift  of  anonymous  collector, 
Raleigh  (G.57.34.10).  Gouache,  h:13^3 
w:20}2  inches. 

Benjamin  Kopman  (born  1887),  "Head 
of  a  Girl."  Gift  of  Mr.  J.  B.  Neumann, 
New  York  (G.58.6.1).  Water  color,  h:6^, 
w:43^  inches.  Signed  and  dated  1956. 

Benjamin  Kopman  (born  1887),  "Man 
Under  a  Tree."  Gift  of  Mr.  J.  B.  Neumann, 
New  York  (G.58.6.2).  Water  color,  h:6V2, 
wA}/2  inches.  Signed. 

Rico  Lebrun  (born  Italy,  1900),  "Sketch 
for  the  Crucifixion."  Gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
James  B.  Byrnes,  Raleigh  (G.57.37.1).  Ink 
and  wash  on  paper,  h:ll,  w:23  inches. 
Exhib.:  Los  Angeles  County  Museum,  1950 
cat.  25;  Santa  Barbara  Museum  of  Art, 
1951;  M.  H.  de  Young  Memorial  Museum, 
San  Francisco  1951. 

Homer  Lee  (contemporary),  "The  City." 
Gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  James  B.  Byrnes, 
Raleigh  (G.57.37.2).  Canvas,  h:24,  w:28 
inches.  Exhib.;  Los  Angeles  County  Mu- 
seum, 1950. 

European  Paintings 

Lodovico  Carracci  (Italian,  1555-1619), 
"The  Assumption  of  the  Virgin"  (former 
loan).  Gift  of  Mrs.  J.  L.  Dorminy,  Raleigh, 
in  memory  of  her  husband,  J.  L.  Dorminy 
(GL. 57. 21.1).  Canvas,  h:96}2,  w:53  inches. 
Coll.:  Marquis  of  Abercorn. 

Hans  Brosamer  (German,  about  1500- 
about  1554),  "Portrait  of  a  Gentleman," 
about  1520.  Gift  of  Mrs.  Arthur  Lehman, 
New  York  (G.57.25.1).  Panel,  h:18^,  w:12 
inches.  Coll.:  S.  Neumans,  Brussels;  Arthur 
Lehman,  New  York.  Exhib.:  World's  Fair, 
New  York,  1939.  Lit.:  Charles  L.  Kuhn, 
A  Catalogue  of  German  Paintings  of  the  Middle 
Ages  and  Renaissance  in  American  Collections, 

*  Only  long-term  loans  are  listed. 


Cambridge,  1936,  p.  35,  No.  27,  PI.  XVII; 
New  York,  World's  Fair,  European  Paintings 
and  Sculpture  from  1300  to  7800,  May-October 
1939,  p.  14,  No.  27. 

Master  of  San  Miniato  (Italian,  late  15th 
century),  "Madonna  and  Child."  Gift  of 
Mr.  Howard  Young,  New  York  (G.57.26.1). 
Panel,  h:38^4,  w:22^2  inches. 

Isaac  de  Jouderville  (Dutch,  1613-about 
1645),  "A  Laughing  Young  Man."  Gift  of 
Mr.  Leon  Medina,  New  York  (G. 57. 27.1). 
Canvas,  h:28,  w:23  inches.  Exhib.:  Rem- 
brandt and  His  Pupils,  North  Carolina 
Museum  of  Art,  1956  (cat.  53). 

Jan  Lievens  (Dutch,  1607-1674),  "Por- 
trait of  a  Man."  Gift  of  Mr.  Benjamin 
Katz,  Dieren,  Holland  (G.57.28.1).  Panel, 
h.\\9}/2,  w:15  inches. 

"Portrait  of  Charles  Fourier."  French, 
19th  century.  Gift  of  Mr.  W.  E.  Groves, 
New  Orleans  (G. 57. 39.1).  Canvas,  h:64^, 
w:51 34  inches. 

Max  Pechstein  (German,  1881-1955), 
"Boats."  Gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  S.  J.  Levin, 
St.  Louis  (G. 57. 36.1).  Water  color  on  paper, 
h:  14^2,  w:18  inches.  Signed  and  dated 
1919. 

Jean  Helion  (French,  born  1904), 
"Untitled."  Lent  *  by  Miss  Peggy  Guggen- 
heim, Venice  (L. 57. 40.1).  Canvas,  h:51, 
w:64  inches.  Signed  and  dated  on  reverse, 
1934. 

Paul  van  Somer  (English,  1576-1621), 
"The  Countess  of  Devonshire  and  Her 
Daughter,"  companion  piece  to  the  follow- 
ing work.  Gift  of  Governor  and  Mrs.  Luther 
Hartwell  Hodges,  Raleigh  (G.58.3.1).  Can- 
vas, h:51;H>,  w:413^  inches.  Signed  and 
dated  1619. 

Paul  van  Somer  (English,  1576-1621), 
"The  Earl  of  Devonshire  and  His  Son." 
Museum  Purchase  Fund  (58.4.1).  Canvas, 


52 


h:5\}/2,  w:413^2  inches.  Signed  and  dated 
1619. 

Govaert  Flinck  (Dutch,  1615-1660), "Self 
Portrait,"  companion  piece  to  the  follow- 
ing work.  Museum  Purchase  Fund  (58.4.2). 
Canvas,  h:49,  w:37  inches.  Signed  and 
dated  1646. 

Govaert  Flinck  (Dutch,  1615-1660), 
"Portrait  of  the  Artist's  Wife."  Museum 
Purchase  Fund  (58.4.3).  Canvas,  h:49, 
w:37  inches.  Signed  and  dated  1646. 

Gerbrand  van  den  Eeckhout  (Dutch, 
1621-1674),  "Sketch  for  a  Family  Portrait." 
Museum  Purchase  Fund  (58.4.4).  Panel, 
h:14,  w:173^  inches.  Coll.:  Dr.  A.  Meyers, 
Speyer,  Germany. 

Marco  Ricci  (Italian,  1676-1729),  "Girl 
on  a  Donkey  and  Young  Man"  (grisaille). 
Gift  of  Oscar  and  Jan  Klein,  New  York 
(G.57.5.3).  Oil  on  cardboard,  h:6,  w:5 
inches. 

Sculpture 

Claude  Michel  Clodion  (French,  1738- 
1814),  Relief  Representing  a  Sacrifice  to 
Bacchus.  Museum  Purchase  Fund  (58.- 
4.5).  Bronze,  h:8^i,  w:20  inches.  Dated 
1787.  Coll.:  Cardinal  Rohan,  Vienna; 
Michael  Hall,  Hollywood. 

Francesco  Laurana  (Italian,  1420-5- 
1502),  "Federigo  da  Montefeltro,  Duke  of 
Urbino."  Museum  Purchase  Fund  (58.4.6). 
Marble  tondo,  diam.:19?4  inches.  Coll.: 
Melitta  von  Krumhaar,  Vienna,  1932. 
Exhib.:  Italian  Sculpture,  1250-1500,  De- 
troit Institute  of  Arts,  1938,  No.  98.  Lit.: 
Eric  Maclaglan  and  Margaret  H.  Long- 
herst,  Catalogue  of  Italian  Sculpture,  Victoria 
and  Albert  Museum,  1932,  p.  124,  No. 
A97. 


*  Only  long-term  loans  are  listed. 


Giovanni  da  Bologna  (Italian,  1524- 
1608),  "The  Bird  Catcher."  Gift  in  honor 
of  Mrs.  James  L.  Fleming,  Greenville,  by 
her  children  (G. 58. 5.1).  Bronze,  h:10M 
inches. 

Francesco  da  San  Gallo  (Italian,  1494- 
1576),  "Hercules  and  Cerberus."  Gift  of 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  James  E.  Hall,  Lumberton 
(G. 58.1.1).  Bronze,  h:534  inches. 

Tino  da  Camaino  (Sienese,  14th  cen- 
tury), "Madonna  and  Child."  Gift  of  Dr. 
W.  R.  Valentiner,  Raleigh  (G. 57. 34.1 1 ). 
Marble  relief,  h:18,  w:153^  inches. 

Knight  on  Horseback  with  Lance. 
French,  about  1700.  Gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Arthur  L.  Erlanger,  New  York  (G. 57. 41.1). 
Bronze,  h:1132,  w:16]2  inches. 

Bacchus.  Greece,  2nd  or  3rd  century 
B.  C.  Lent  *  by  Dr.  and  Mrs.  John  D. 
Humber,  San  Francisco  (L. 58. 2.1).  Marble, 
h:66  inches.  Coll.:  Pierpont  Morgan,  New 
York. 

Bust  of  General  von  Steuben.  American 
(?),  18th  century.  Gift  of  Mr.  Leon  Medina, 
New  York  (G. 57. 24. 2).  Terra  cotta,  h:27, 
w:23  inches. 

Robert  A.  Howard  (American,  con- 
temporary), "Landscape  II."  Purchase 
award  (57.42.2).  Bronze,  h:13j  2,  w:18^ 
inches.  Exhib.:  North  Carolina  Artists' 
Annual  Competition,  North  Carolina  Mu- 
seum of  Art,  1957  (cat.  54). 

Benvenuto  Cellini  (Italian,  1500-1571), 
"Neptune."  About  1500.  Gift  of  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Arthur  W.  Levy,  Jr.,  Raleigh  (GL.- 
57.11.12).  Former  loan.  Bronze,  h:9^2 
inches. 

Buddha  on  horseback — "The  Great  De- 
parture." Indian  Hellenistic  (Gandhara), 
first  to  second  century  A.  D.  (GL. 57. 14.44). 
Bas  relief  in  stone,  h:10,  w:10^2  inches. 

Archaic    god    (painted).    Greek,  sixth 


53 


century  B.  C.  (GL.57. 14.45).  Terra  cotta, 
h:13^4  inches. 

Satyr.  Greek,  4th  century  B.  C.  (GL.- 
57.14.46).  Terra  cotta,  h:3}4  inches. 

Sphinx  with  hippopotamus  body.  Egyp- 
tian (Ptolemaic),  323-33  B.  C.  (GL.57.- 
14.47).  Terra  cotta,  h:l!4,  1:3  inches. 

Standing  Woman.  Greek  (Tanagra),  4th 
century  B.  C.  (GL.57. 14.48).  Terra  cotta 
with  polychrome,  h:5,  w:2  inches. 

Pallas  Athene.  Greek  (Tanagra),  4th 
century  B.  C.  (GL.57. 14.49) .  Terra  cotta, 
11:5  32  inches.  Coll.:  Dikran  Kelekian,  Paris. 

Seated  woman.  Greek  (Tanagra),  4th 
century  B.  C.  (GL.57. 14. 50).  Terra  cotta, 
h:7  inches. 

Kneeling  horse.  Egyptian  (Ptolemaic), 
323-33  B.  C.  (GL.57. 14. 51).  Limestone, 
h:3}2,  w;3  inches.  Coll.:  Dikran  Kelekian, 
Paris. 

The  above  gifts  (former  loans)  of  Dr. 
and  Mrs.  Fred  Olsen,  Guilford,  Con- 
necticut. 

Mark  Toby  (American,  born  1890), 
"Calligraphic  III."  Gift  of  anonymous 
collector,  Raleigh  (G. 57. 34. 5).  Monoprint, 
h:17:54,  w:ll34  inches.  Signed  and  dated 
1954. 

Harry  Bertoia  (American,  contempo- 
rary), "Untitled"  (monoprint).  Gift  of 
anonymous  collector,  Raleigh  (G. 57. 34. 9). 
Board,  h:9%,  w:\2%  inches.  Signed. 

Decorative  Arts  and  Others 

Tapestry  Showing  Two  Women  Con- 
versing. Flemish,  17th  century.  Gift  of  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Burrows  McNeir,  New  Bern 
(G. 57. 20.2).  H:90,  w:106  inches. 

Collection  of  antique  laces  and  textiles. 


French,  Italian,  Spanish,  Austrian,  Persian, 
and  Chinese.  Anonymous  gift  (G. 57.23. - 
1-.61). 

Prayer  Rug.  Turkish,  about  1800.  Gift 
of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  W.  Lunsford  Long,  War- 
renton  (G.57.32.1).  H:803^,  w:47  inches. 

Two  Large  Chandeliers.  American,  19th 
century.  Gift  of  Miss  Elizabeth  Dortch, 
Raleigh,  in  memory  of  Dr.  Thomas  Deve- 
reux  Hogg  (1823-1904)  (G.57.35.1-.2). 
Exhib.:  Crystal  Palace,  London  Exhibition 
of  1851. 

Small  Chandelier  with  Warriors  of  East- 
ern Nations.  American,  19th  century.  Gift 
of  Miss  Elizabeth  Dortch,  Raleigh,  in 
memory  of  Miss  Sally  Hogg  (1850-1918) 
(G.57.35.3). 

Small  Chandelier  with  Glass  Globe. 
American,  19th  century.  Gift  of  Miss 
Elizabeth  Dortch,  Raleigh,  in  memory  of 
Miss  Sally  Dortch  (1876-1951)  (G.57.35.4). 

Small  Chandelier.  American,  19th  cen- 
tury. Gift  of  Miss  Elizabeth  Dortch,  Raleigh 
(G.57.35.5). 

Sampler  or  book  cover.  Mexican,  19th 
century.  Gift  of  Miss  Elizabeth  Dortch, 
Raleigh  (G. 57. 35. 6).  Needlepoint  embroid- 
ery, h:153^,  w:21  inches. 

Flowered  silk  brocade  panel.  French, 
early  18th  century.  Gift  of  Mrs.  Athol  C. 
Burnham,  Chapel  Hill  (G.57.43.1).  H:54, 
w:  18  x/2  inches. 

Graphics 

Collection  of  sixteen  textiles.  Peruvian 
(lea?),  about  1300-1438  A.  D.  Found  in 
grave  between  Huaco  and  Lima.  Gift  of 
Mr.  G.  Dent  Mangum,  Jr.,  Raleigh  (G.58.- 
7.1-.16). 


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56 


THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  MUSUEM  OF  ART 


Officers  and  Board  of  Directors  of  the  State  Art  Society 

Governor  Luther  H.  Hodges  Honorary  President 

Mr.  Robert  Lee  Humber  President 

Mr.  Edwin  Gill  Vice-President 

Mrs.  May  Davis  Hill  Secretary 

Mrs.  James  H.  Cordon  Treasurer 

Vice-Presidents  at  Large  Elected 

Mrs.  Frank  Taylor  Dr.  Clarence  Poe 

Mrs.  Jacques  Busbee  Mrs.  Isabelle  Henderson 

Mr.  John  V.  Allcott  Dr.  Clemens  Sommer 

Mr.  Egbert  L.  Davis,  Jr. 

Appointed  by  the  Governor  Mr.  Henry  L.  Bridges 

Dr.  Sylvester  Green  Mr.  Gregory  Ivy 

Mrs.  Charles  Cannon  Mrs.  J.  H.  B.  Moore 

Mr.  Ralph  C.  Price  Mr.  Edwin  Gill 

Ex  Officio 

Hon.  Luther  H.  Hodges  Governor  of  North  Carolina 

Dr.  Charles  M.  Carroll  State  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction 

Mr.  George  B.  Patton  Attorney  General 

Mrs.  C.  B.  Clegg  Art  Chairman,  North  Carolina  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs 

Staff  of  the  Museum 

Dr.  W.  R.  Valentiner  Director 

James  B.  Byrnes  Associate  Director 

Ben  F.  Williams  Curator 

Charles  W.  Stanford,  Jr  Curator  of  Education 

May  Davis  Hill  Librarian,  Registrar  and  Curator  of  Prints 

William  T.  Beckwith  Budget  Officer 

Peggy  Jo  Kirby  Secretary  to  Director 

Peggy  Noblin  Secretary 

Edith  Johnson   Sales  Desk 

William  A.  Weathersby  Library  Assistant 

Frank  L.  Manly  Museum  Technician 

Branton  L.  Olive  Packer  and  Shipper 

James  R.  Hampton  Head  Museum  Guard 

Information 

Hours:  Open  Tuesdays  through  Saturdays  10-5;  Sundays  2-6;  Closed  Mondays  and 
legal  holidays. 

Telephone:    TE  4-3611,  Ext.  7569. 

Tours:    May  be  scheduled  upon  advance  written  request. 

Membership  in  the  North  Carolina  State  Art  Society:  Annual  $5.00;  Contributor 
$10.00;  Sustaining  $25.00;  Patron  $50.00;  Life  $100.00;  Donor  $500.00;  Benefactor 
$1,000.00. 

All  gifts  to  the  Museum,  whether  of  objects  or  money,  are  tax  deductible.  Names  of 
donors  are  permanently  attached  to  objects  purchased  with  donated  funds. 


The  North  Carolina  Museum  of  Art 

RALEIGH,  NORTH  CAROLINA 


NON-PROFIT  ORG. 
U.  S.  POSTAGE 

PAID 

RALEIGH,  N.  C. 
Permit  No.  453 


North  Carolina  State  Library 
Technical  Service  Division 
Box  2839 

Raleigh,  N.  C.  4  tfopie* 


THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  MUSEUM  OF  ART 

BULLETIN 


SPECIAL  SCULPTURE  SUPPLEMENT  TO  THE  PERMANENT  CATALOGUE 

CONTENTS 

New  Sculpture  Acquisitions 

I.  Four  Gandharan  Sculptures   2 

By  Roy  C.  Craven,  Jr. 

II.  A  Pair  of  Pre-Columbian  Figures   10 

III.  Madonna  and  Child  Relief  by  Tino  da  Camaino   13 

IV.  "Portrait  of  Federigo  da  Montefeltro,  Duke  of  Urbino,"  Marble  Relief 

by  Laurana   15 

V.  A  Relief  by  Benedetto  Briosco,  Active  in  Lombardy  From  1483  to  1506.  .  17 

VI.  "Hercules,"  Bronze  Statuette  by  Francesco  da  San  Gallo   19 

VII.  "The  Bird  Catcher"  by  Giovanni  da  Bologna   22 

VIII.  A  Bronze  Plaque  by  Clodion   23 

By  W.  R.  Valentiner 

IX.  Bronze  Statuette  of  Daniel  Webster  by  Thomas  Ball   28 

Checklist  of  Additional  Sculptures  in  the  North  Carolina  Museum  of  Art   30 

By  May  Davis  Hill 

The  Life  of  Agostino  Cornacchini  by  Francesco  Maria  Niccolb  Gabburri   37 

Edited  By  Herbert  Keutner 

Registrar's  Report  of  New  Acquisitions   43 


Cover:  Giovanni  da  Bologna  (Italian,  1524-1608),  The  Bird  Catcher.  Bronze,  height  10% 
inches.  Gift  in  honor  of  Mrs.  James  L.  Fleming,  Greenville,  by  her  children. 


The  North  Carolina  Museum  of  Art  Bulletin  is  published  quarterly.  Copyright,  1957,  by  the  North  Carolina  Museum 
of  Art,  107  East  Morgan  Street,  Raleigh,  North  Carolina.  Subscriptions  $2.00  a  year.  Single  copies  $.50.  Sent  free 
to  North  Carolina  State  Art  Society  members.  Four  weeks'  notice  required  for  change  of  address. 


WILLIAM  REINHOLD  VALENTINER 


1880-1958 

It  has  been  said  that  every  great  man  leaves  a  legacy  to  enrich  mankind. 
William  R.  Valentiner  fulfilled  in  plentitude  this  dictum.  He  was  one  of 
humanity's  gifted  sons. 

His  passing  on  September  the  sixth  impoverished  the  art  world  of  an 
historic  figure  and  the  North  Carolina  Museum  of  Art  of  its  cherished  leader 
and  friend. 

His  life  was  dedicated  to  art.  In  the  domain  of  letters  he  was  an  artist 
in  words.  His  knowledge  of  universal  art  was  unrivalled  in  this  generation. 
He  was  the  author  of  over  thirty  volumes  and  eight  hundred  articles  in  his 
chosen  field.  His  scholarly  attainments  are  his  ageless  memorials  and  his 
credentials  of  immortality. 

Yet  he  led  an  active  life  of  executive  responsibility,  embracing  a  full  half- 
century,  as  Curator  of  Decorative  Arts  at  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of 
Art  in  New  York  City,  and  as  director  of  the  Institute  of  Arts  in  Detroit, 
the  Los  Angeles  County  Museum  in  Los  Angeles,  the  J.  Paul  Getty  Museum 
in  Santa  Monica,  and  the  North  Carolina  Museum  of  Art  in  Raleigh.  Under 
his  guidance  were  trained  some  of  the  most  eminent  museum  directors  of  our 
time. 

He  had  a  genius  for  discovering  masterpieces  lost  through  the  centuries 
to  art  historians.  Many  a  museum  in  America  and  Europe  has  been  enriched 
by  his  intuitive  excursions  into  the  treasure  houses  of  the  Continent  and  by 
his  remarkable  finds.  How  appropriate  that  his  last  great  discovery,  made 
during  his  recent  trip  to  Europe,  should  have  been  a  portrait  by  Rembrandt. 

Dr.  Valentiner  was  sought  by  art  patrons  throughout  the  world  for  attribu- 
tions to  authenticate  works  of  art,  by  scholars  for  his  rare  judgment  in  ap- 
praising the  timeless  qualities  of  a  masterpiece,  and  by  art  lovers  in  every 
land  because  he  inspired  them  through  his  writings  to  love  beauty  and  to 
feel  the  spiritual  uplift  of  an  artist's  dream  reduced  to  canvas  or  carved  in 
stone. 

William  R.  Valentiner  symbolized  an  epoch,  the  greatest  fifty  years  yet 
known  in  museum  history,  and  North  Carolina  is  proud  and  grateful  to 
have  had  his  services  as  the  first  director  of  its  State  Museum  of  Art. 

Robert  Lee  Humber,  President 

The  North  Carolina  State  Art  Society 


FOUR  GANDHARAN  SCULPTURES 


By  Roy  C.  Craven,  Jr. 


Four  pieces  of  sculpture  in  the  museum 
collection,  gifts  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Fred 
Olsen,  come  from  the  great  meeting  ground 
of  eastern  and  western  cultures,  Gandhara. 
This  area,  originally  located  in  what  is 
now  northern  Pakistan  and  southern 
Afganistan,  has  had  a  fascinating  history. 

In  326  B.C.  Alexander  the  Great  crossed 
the  Indus  River  and  arrived  in  Taxila,  the 
chief  city  of  Gandhara.  Five  years  later 
he  was  dead  and  the  great  Hindu  ruler, 
Chandragupta,  began  consolidating  India 
into  a  great  empire.  The  Macedonian  hold 
on  northern  India  would  be  completely 
ended  within  thirty  years,  but  western 
influences  were  to  be  long  felt. 

Around  250  B.C.,  following  the  passing 
of  Chandragupta's  grandson,  Asoka,  and 
the  wane  of  Mauryan  influence,  the  Bac- 
trian  Greeks  dominated  Gandhara,  and 
in  190  B.C.  Demetrius  I  conquered  the 
Indus  Valley.  Forty  years  later  the  famous 
Greek  king,  Menander,  became  a  Buddhist 
convert,  and  the  Bactrian  Greeks  were 
firmly  settled  in  northern  India  for  the 
remainder  of  the  second  century  B.C. 
Eventually  they  were  overpowered,  first 
from  the  north  by  the  Scythians,  who 
were  being  forced  southward  by  the  Mon- 
gols, who  finally  arrived  on  the  scene  in 
the  late  first  century  A.D. 

The  most  decisive  invasion  of  the  area 
came  around  65  A.D.  when  the  Mongols 
pushed  into  India  and  established  the 
great  Kusana  Empire,  which  would  last 
four  hundred  years.   Around   500  A.D., 

1  Ananda  K.  Coomaraswamy,  History  of  Indian  and 
Indonesian  Art  (London,  Goldston,  1927),  p.  52. 


however,  it  was  extinguished,  and  its 
centers  and  monasteries  were  destroyed  by 
the  famous  invasion  of  White  Huns. 

Tempered  by  a  Hellenic  climate,  Gand- 
hara produced  for  several  hundred  years 
a  half  Indian,  half  Greco-Roman  style  of 
sculpture  unique  in  Buddhist  art.  Accord- 
ing to  Coomaraswamy,  "The  Gandhara 
School  of  Graeco-Buddhist  sculpture  may 
date  from  the  First  Century  B.C.  .  .  .  and 
continues  an  abundant  production  on  into 
the  Third  and  Fourth  Centuries  (A.D.), 
with  increasing  Indianization  both  there 
and  in  Kashmir."1 

The  four  examples  of  Gandharan  sculp- 
ture with  which  we  are  concerned  were 
probably  executed  during  the  reign  of 
King  Kaniska  (ca.  78-123  A.D.).  During  ! 
this  high  point  of  the  Kusana  Empire  the 
land  routes  were  again  opened  to  the  West, 
and  Kaniska  even  sent  an  embassy  to 
Rome,  in  99  A.D.,  to  visit  Trajan.  Thus 
it  is  not  strange  to  see  a  strong  Roman 
influence  in  Kusana  art,  and  this  is  even 
more  understandable  when  we  know  that 
itinerant  Roman  sculptors  were  working 
in  Gandhara  at  this  same  time. 

Carved  from  the  beautiful  grey  slate 
which  was  the  distinctive  medium  of  the  ; 
Gandharan  sculptors  from  the  first  to  third 
centuries  A.D.,  all  four  pieces  could  be 
said  to  have  a  strong  Indianized  look  or 
mode.  This,  perhaps,  can  be  explained  by! 
the  fact  that  a  closer  liaison  with  the  south- 
ern portion  of  the  Empire  and  school  at 
Mathura  (modern  Muttra)  had  been  estab- 
lished.  Also  the  Gandhara  style  was  never 
a  Greek  style,  but  a  style  strongly  influenced 


2 


Fig.  1.  "Buddha  With  Two  Disciples"  (Conversion  of  Nanda?).  India  (Gandhara),  ca.  78-123 
A.D.  Slate,  11  x  11^2  inches.  Gift  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Fred  Olsen,  Guilford,  Connecticut. 


by  Roman  sculpture  of  the  first  and  second 
centuries.  The  term  "Greco-Buddhist"  is 
widely  used  in  reference  to  Gandhara,  but 
there  was  never  any  art  created  in  the 
area  showing  Greek  influence  save  the 
coins  struck  by  the  Bactrian  kingdoms 
prior  to  the  great  Buddhist  activity.  The 
Gandharan  style  was  only  a  phase  of 
Hellenistic  development,  tempered  by  an 
alien  soil  into  a  product  of  its  own  time 
and  region. 

An  interesting  parallel  can  be  seen 
between  the  Gandharan  sculptures  and 
the  stucco  grave  figures  of  Palmyra  in 
Asia  Minor.  The  startling  resemblance 
between  these  two  far-removed  schools  is 
even  more  remarkable  when  one  realizes 
that  the  Palmyran  works  were  created  in 
an  area  which  might  be  considered  the 
Hellenic  backyard,  while  the  Gandharan 
pieces  came  into  being  in  a  world  twice 
removed  from  the  true  Greco-Roman 
cultural  experience. 

The  main  element  which  is  similar  in 
both  styles  is  the  full  and  fluted  drapery 
of  the  costumes  which  is  clearly  an  element 
derived  from  Roman  sculpture  of  the 
Flavian  period.2  This  device  is  also  to  be 
seen  in  many  other  areas  of  the  Middle 
East  and  Europe  and  the  Romanesque 
sculptures  of  southern  France  and  Italy 
come  immediately  to  mind — but  how  much 
later  they  were  executed! 

This  brings  us  to  our  first  example  from 
the  Museum  (Fig.  1),  which  originally  was 
part  of  a  larger  frieze  depicting  episodes 
from  the  life  of  Buddha.  This  piece  probably 
once  existed  as  a  formal  unit  designed  as 
two  rooms  flanking  a  central  niche  con- 
taining a  figure  of  Buddha.  In  its  broken 

2  For  a  discussion  of  Roman  influences  on  Gandhara, 
see  Benjamin  Rowland,  The  Art  and  Architecture  of  India 
(Baltimore,  Pelican,  1953),  pp.  69-84. 


state  we  see  a  defaced,  haloed  figure  of 
Buddha  seated  upon  a  throne  in  an  archi- 
tectural setting.  The  compartment  to  our 
left  has  been  broken  off,  but  we  can  safely 
assume  that  it  also  housed,  as  does  the 
remaining  room  to  our  right,  figures  turned 
toward  Buddha  in  a  worshipful  attitude. 
The  figure  to  the  left  of  the  room  is  male  and 
appears  to  be  a  noble,  and  the  female  figure 
to  the  right  also  seems  to  be  a  personage  of 
wealth,  as  evidenced  by  her  elaborate  head- 
dress and  ankle  jewelry.  Columns  sur- 
mounted by  Corinthian-like  capitals  sup- 
port the  roof  and  close  in  the  couple  below, 
while  above  the  roof  three  heavenly 
"Apsaras"  flourish  lotus  blossoms.  Sur- 
mounting the  whole  piece  and  functioning, 
no  doubt,  as  a  unifying  device  for  the 
complete  architectural  frieze  is  a  decorative 
floral  pattern  which  echoes  strong  western 
influence. 

The  Buddha  is  holding  in  his  left  hand 
his  alms  bowl,  and  his  right  arm,  which  is 
broken  off  at  the  wrist,  is  held  aloft,  either 
in  support  of  some  object  or  in  the  per- 
formance of  a  hand  gesture  or  "Mudra." 
A  folding  stool  stands  in  front  of  the  throne, 
supporting  five  unidentified  objects. 

The  work's  fragmentary  condition  makes 
it  extremely  difficult  to  identify  the  event 
originally  depicted.  However,  one  subject 
is  strongly  suggested  by  the  remaining 
elements,  and  that  is  the  conversion  of 
Buddha's  half  brother  Nanda. 

When  Gautama  had  achieved  enlighten- 
ment and  had  taught  his  first  sermon,  he, 
with  his  followers,  returned  to  his  father's 
kingdom  where  he  converted  his  half 
brother  and  son  to  the  faith.  Many  Gand- 
haran sculptures  of  similar  format  portray 
this  scene  of  the  conversion  of  Nanda  to 
the  monkhood.  The  Buddha  is  always 


4 


shown  presenting  his  alms  bowl  and  cloak 
to  his  brother  in  the  presence  of  courtiers 
and  monks,  while  above  the  scene  heavenly 
figures  rejoice  for  the  occasion.  We  could 
be  more  certain  of  the  work's  subject  if  it 
were  not  for  the  missing  hand  and  the 
disquieting  still  life  on  the  folding  stool, 
since  the  remaining  details  of  the  alms 
bowl,  courtiers,  and  Apsaras  are  standard 
embellishments  to  the  scene  of  conversion. 

One  is  tempted  to  say  that  the  objects 
on  the  stool  might  be  symbols  for  the  five 
commandments,  which  are  basic  to  the 
code  of  monks  as  well  as  the  lay  order.  A 
further  possibility  is  that  they  are  the  Pan- 
catattva,  or  the  "five  forbidden"  or  "five 
good  things,"  of  the  Tantra,  which  is  only 
a  step  removed  from  the  commandments. 
These  answers  seem  even  more  attractive 
when  we  remember  that  Buddha's  half 
brother  was  converted  to  the  monkhood 
on  the  eve  of  his  marriage,  and  the  inclusion 
of  the  five  things  of  symbolic  ritual  would 
be  quite  appropriate  in  a  scene  depicting 
the  event. 

The  fact  that  most  Tantric  literature  is 
dated  after  300  A.D.  would  negate  the 
Tantric  part  of  the  theory  and  would  tend 
to  push  the  date  of  our  sculpture  far  past 
the  reign  of  King  Kaniska,  which  ended 
in  123  A.D.  We  do  know,  however,  that 
many  Tantric  ideas  prevailed  prior  to  their 
codification  in  a  set  group  of  scriptures, 
and  the  "Greater  Vehicle"  had  already 
welcomed  many  of  them. 

In  regard  to  style,  this  piece  is  the  most 
"finished"  of  the  four  Gandharan  sculp- 
tures in  the  Museum  and  appears  to  be 
the  one  displaying  the  least  amount  of 
Indianization  with  the  exception  of  our 

3  Heinrich  Zimmer,  The  Art  of  Indian  Asia  (New 
York,  Pantheon,  1955)  I,  346. 


next  example,  the  great  departure. 

This  episode  (Fig.  2),  which  is  easier  to 
identify,  shows  us  the  Prince  Siddhartha 
departing  from  his  father's  kingdom  by 
night  to  commence  his  monastic  search  for 
Buddhahood.  Still  dressed  in  his  royal 
garments  and  jewelry,  and  aided  by  a 
heavenly  host,  the  prince  effects  his  escape, 
mounted  upon  his  famous  charger 
Kanthaka. 

On  either  side  of  the  riding  prince  we  see 
a  standing  figure.  One  of  these  is  undoubt- 
edly Chandaka,  the  prince's  groom,  who 
is  always  shown  accompanying  him,  while 
the  badly  damaged  figure  to  our  right  is 
impossible  to  identify.  It  is  possible,  how- 
ever, that  he  may  have  at  one  time  carried 
an  umbrella,  the  honorific  Oriental  symbol 
of  royalty. 

Because  the  view  of  our  scene  is  frontal, 
rather  than  in  profile,  our  piece  shows  the 
kings  of  the  four  heavens  who,  in  many 
profile  works,  support  Kanthaka's  feet  away 
from  the  ground,  hovering  above  the  action 
while  below  a  single  Deva  is  shown,  sup- 
porting a  hoof  in  each  hand. 

We  can  easily  see  that  the  style  here 
and  in  the  two  remaining  pieces  is  not  as 
finished  nor  as  competent  as  we  have 
observed  in  our  first  example,  the  possible 
conversion  of  Nanda.  These  "shorthand" 
pieces  must  have  been  designed  to  occupy 
positions  of  less  importance  on  the  build- 
ings, far  removed  from  close  scrutiny.  "They 
were  mass-produced  in  unpretentious  skilled 
workshops,  operating  on  a  large  scale  and 
with  as  much  speed  as  possible,  to  provide 
numerous  and  extensive  monasteries,  stupas, 
and  other  buildings  with  a  lavish  mantle 
of  friezes,  panels,  statues,  and  sculptured 
ornaments."  3 

This   "shorthand"   style  is  even  more 


6 


Fig.  3.  "Avalokitesvara,  Lord  of  Mercy."  India  (Gandhara),  ca.  78-123  A.D.  Slate,  5  x  25  inches 
Gift  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Fred  Olsen,  Guilford,  Connecticut. 


Fig.  4.  "Bodhisattva."  India  (Gandhara),  ca.  78-123  A.D.  Slate,  8^  x  8^  inches.  Gift  of  Dr 
and  Mrs.  Fred  Olsen,  Guilford,  Connecticut. 


marked  in  our  next  example  (Fig.  3) 
which  by  shape  and  design  suggests  that 
it  might  originally  have  served  as  a  door 
lintel.  The  elongated  horizontal  slab  of 
blue  slate  describes  a  shallow  rectangle 
containing  a  seated  Buddha  centered  be- 
tween eight  male  figures  who  are  clothed 
in  the  royal  garments  of  the  period.  Each 
figure  displays  a  characteristic  hand  gesture 
of  its  own  which  gives  the  quiet  and  formal 
composition  an  air  of  action  and  suspense. 
At  the  extreme  ends  of  the  panel  are 
displayed  stylized  trees,  while  above  each 
shoulder  of  the  Buddha  appears  a  rounded 
nebulous  form  which  could  be  lotus  blos- 
soms or  symbolic  representations  of  the  bo 
tree.  The  Buddha  holds  a  lotus  bud  in  his 
left  hand. 

The  scene  depicted  appears  to  be  the 
one  dealing  with  the  supplicant  gods  who 
have  come  to  earth  to  beg  the  Buddha  to 
share  his  knowledge  of  salvation  with  all 
beings.  Following  his  temptation  and  en- 
lightenment, the  Buddha  remained  under 
the  bo  tree  debating  the  virtue  of  revealing 
his  pathway  to  Nirvana.  Only  after  Brahma 
had  descended  from  heaven  with  other 
gods  to  plead  with  him  did  Buddha 
acquiesce  to  preach  the  law  to  man. 

This  work  with  its  brief  and  direct 
carving  is  contained  or  exists  within  a  kind 
of  vital  geometry  which  makes  it  attractive 
to  the  modern  eye.  Its  execution  seems  to 
have  required  so  little  time  that  a  vital 
description  of  space  has  emerged  with  a 
primitive  freshness  which  is  lacking  in  the 
more  finished  and  carefully  planned  works. 
The  fact  that  such  a  "shorthand"  style 
was  tolerated  might  be  explained  by  the 
fact  that  few  of  the  Gandharan  sculptures 
ever  escaped  the  violation  of  stucco,  poly- 
chrome and  gold  leaf  finishes. 


We  come  now  to  our  last  and  what  seems 
to  be  our  most  interesting  sculpture  (Fig.  4). 

A  seated  figure  of  Buddha  is  again  shown 
under  a  tree,  but  this  time  it  is  not  a  true 
Buddha,  but  rather  a  Buddha-to-be — a 
Bodhisattva.  To  be  exact,  we  see  here  the 
young  Gautama  as  a  monk,  fresh  from  his 
father's  palace,  and  still  unenlightened, 
performing  Yogaistic  austerities  in  pursuit 
of  salvation.  The  fasting  Buddha-to-be  is 
seated  on  an  elevated  platform,  the  kind 
built  around  the  base  of  holy  trees,  while 
two  ascetics  stand  on  either  side  in  a  wor- 
shipful attitude.  The  figure  to  our  left  is 
typical  of  the  Sadhu  with  his  long  and 
matted  beard  and  coiled  hair,  while  the 
figure  on  the  right  has  the  startling  mood 
and  bearing  of  some  of  the  Bodhisattvas 
which  decorate  the  caves  of  a  thousand 
Buddhas  in  western  China  at  Tunhwang. 
This  small  and  briefly  stated  figure  is  an 
interesting  footnote  to  the  flow  of  religious 
and  cultural  ideas  along  the  silk  routes 
between  China  and  northern  India. 

The  Buddha-to-be  was  to  reduce  himself 
almost  to  a  skeleton  before  realizing  that 
salvation  could  not  be  obtained  through 
austerities.  He  thus  renounced  asceticism 
and  resolved  to  reach  the  truth  by  means 
of  the  intellect.  This  concept  of  a  holy 
mendicant  mortifying  the  fleshly  body  to 
perceive  wisdom  gravitates  toward  Brah- 
maism  and  the  Indian  idea  of  oblivion  to 
the  self  or  ego.  It  is  true  that  Buddhism 
springs  from  Brahmaism,  but  one  of  the 
main  concepts  of  Mahayana  Buddhism  was 
to  be  the  revelation  of  the  human-deity 
aspects  of  the  Buddha.  This  was  especially 
true  in  Gandhara,  for  there  the  narrative 
of  the  Buddha's  existence  came  into  being, 
tempered  by  the  practical  realism  of  the 
West. 


8 


The  emphasis  in  Gandharan  sculpture 
was  always  on  reality  and  the  factual, 
rather  than  toward  the  mystical  world  of 
the  Indian  mind.  Here  the  realistic  situa- 
tion could  be  recorded  with  ease,  but  the 
ascetic  concept  remained  alien  to  the 
craftsmen,  who  were  known  to  carve  with 
more  sympathy  scenes  of  drinking  parties 
and  other  genre  subjects. 

After  the  invasion  of  the  White  Huns 
around  500  A.D.,  all  art  ceased  in  the 
Peshawar  Valley,  but  lingered  on  in 
Kashmir  and  Afghanistan.  As  late  as  700 
A.D.  the  so-called  second  school  of  Gand- 
hara  was  producing  romantic  and  senti- 
mental stucco  and  terra  cotta  works  in 
Hadda  and  Fondukistan.  But  the  true 
epoch  of  Buddhism  and  Buddhist  art  was 
over  in  northern  India  and  would  remain 
buried  in  the  dust  of  dramatic  history  until 
the  nineteenth  century,  when  they  would 
once  again  be  brought  forth  to  reflect  the 
mystery  and  excitement  of  the  days  when 
eastern  and  western  cultures  had  met  and 
blended. 

Short  Bibliography 

Ashton,  Sir  L.  (ed.),  The  Art  of  India  and 
Pakistan:  the  Commemorative  Catalogue  of  the 
Exhibition  Held  at  the  Royal  Academy  of  Art, 
London,  1947-8.  New  York:  Coward- 
McCann,  n.d. 

Coomaraswamy,  A.  The  Dance  of  Shiva, 
revised  edition.  New  York:  The  Noonday 
Press,  1957. 

Coomaraswamy,  A.  Hinduism  and  Buddhism. 


New  York:  The  Philosophical  Library, 
n.d. 

Coomaraswamy,  A.  History  of  Indian  and 
Indonesian  Art.  London:  Edw.  Goldston, 
1927. 

Coomaraswamy,  A.  77^  Transformation  of 
Nature  in  Art.  Cambridge  (Mass.):  Harv- 
ard University  Press,  1935. 

Foucher,  A.  L 'Art  Greco— Bouddhique  du  Gand- 
hdra.  2  Vols.  Paris:  Ecole  Francaise 
d'Extreme  Orient,  1905-18. 

Grousset,  R.  Civilizations  of  the  East,  Vol.  2: 
India.  New  York:  Alfred  A.  Knopf,  1931. 

Humphreys,  Christmas.  Buddhism.  Middle- 
sex: Penguin,  1952. 

Rowland,  Benjamin.  The  Art  and  Archi- 
tecture of  India.  Baltimore:  Pelican,  1953. 

Thomas,  P.  Epics,  Myths  and  Legends  of 
India.  2nd  ed.  Bombay:  D.  B.  Tarapore- 
vala,  n.d. 

Zimmer,  H.  The  Art  of  Indian  Asia.  2  Vols. 
New  York:  Pantheon,  1955. 

Zimmer,  H.  Myths  and  Symbols  in  Indian 
Civilization.  New  York:  Pantheon,  1946. 

Zimmer,  H.  Philosophies  of  India.  New 
York.  Pantheon,  1951. 


Mr.  Craven  is  a  member  of  the  faculty  of  the 
Department  of  Art,  University  of  Florida, 
Gainesville. 


9 


A  PAIR  OF  PRE-COLUMBIAN  FIGURES 


Among  the  most  recent  gifts  to  the 
Museum  is  a  handsome  pair  of  Pre-Colum- 
bian figures,  representing  a  warrior  and  his 
wife,  presented  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  S.  J. 
Levin  of  St.  Louis,  Missouri. 

Dating  from  the  period  between  500  and 
1300  A.D.,  these  fine  examples  by  an 
early  artist-potter  were  excavated  in  the 

Warrior  and  Wife.  Mexico  (Nayarit),  500-1300 
and  Mrs.  S.  J.  Levin,  St.  Louis. 


western  part  of  Mexico  in  the  State  of 
Nayarit. 

Somewhat  larger  than  average,  each  of 
the  figures  measures  twenty-one  inches  in 
height.  Both  demonstrate  the  artist's  inten- 
tion to  express  the  portrait  features  of  the 
original  person  with  whom  these  hollow 
sculptures  would  have  been  buried.  The 

.D.  Terra  cotta,  height  21  inches.  Gift  of  Mr. 


m 


10 


rest  of  the  figurative  elements  are  stylized, 
almost  symbolic  caricatures  of  the  model. 
However,  there  are  practical  as  well  as 
aesthetic  reasons  for  the  seeming  distortion 
of  these  elements;  the  enlarged  feet  are 
necessary  to  support  the  standing  weight 
of  the  figure,  whereas  the  diminutive  arms 
and  hands  suggest  the  action  without 
interfering  with  the  sculptural  unity.  Judg- 
ing from  the  total  ensemble,  one  can  see 
that  the  Nayarit  people  must  have  enjoyed 
a  rather  sophisticated  philosophy  of  life, 
since  most  of  their  expressive  sculptural 
work  has  strong  overtones  of  the  humorous. 
The  larger  groups  of  funerary  objects  found 


in  the  region  consist  of  group  games,  singing 
or  playing  groups,  plump  young  animals, 
and  a  host  of  other  everyday  and  genre 
material.  All  are  skillfully  modeled,  yet 
each  seems  to  have  been  created  in  a  light- 
hearted,  jovial  state  of  mind.  The  art  work 
of  these  western  Mexican-Indian  groups  is 
almost  unique  with  respect  to  this  humor, 
and  certainly  it  contrasts  strongly  with  the 
ritualistic  brutality  evidenced  in  the  art  of 
their  earlier  neighbors  to  the  south  and  east. 

It  is  the  Museum's  hope  that  additional 
examples  of  the  art  of  the  so-called  primitive 
cultures  will  be  added  to  the  collection. 

J.  B.  B. 


11 


12 


MADONNA  AND  CHILD  RELIEF  BY  TINO  DA  CAMAINO 


The  Museum  has  been  fortunate  enough 
to  receive  an  excellent  example  of  the 
work  of  the  Italian  sculptor,  Tino  da 
Camaino  (ca.  1285-1337),  as  a  gift  of  Dr. 
W.  R.  Valentiner.  It  is  a  fragment,  nearly 
complete,  of  a  marble  relief  representing 
the  Madonna  with  the  Christ  Child 
(Fig.  1).  The  entire  composition  occupies 


a  roundel  or  soft  square  incised  in  a  rec- 
tangle. The  Child  makes  the  blessing 
gesture  with  His  right  hand,  while  in  His 
left  He  holds  a  bird,  whose  head  is  missing. 
This  is  a  somewhat  larger  bird  than  the 
goldfinch  which  is  so  often  represented  in 
the  hand  of  the  Christ  Child.  Sitting  on 
His  Mother's  arm  and  supported  by  her 


Fig.  2.  Tino  da  Camaino,  Madonna  and  Child.  Kress  Collection,  New  York. 


/ 


13 


hands  beneath  His  left  leg  and  right  fore- 
arm, the  Child  has  an  upward  swing  in 
the  lines  of  His  figure — one  knee  is  actually 
higher  than  the  other.  This  lyric  quality, 
together  with  the  placement  of  the  large 
bird  well  to  the  right  of  the  group,  con- 
tributes to  the  rounded  outlines  of  the 
composition,  fitting  it  into  the  contour  of  its 
setting.  A  contrasting  angularity  in  the 
design  of  the  central  section  reminds  one 
strongly  of  contemporary  abstract  compo- 
sitions. The  relief  is  complete  except  for  the 
upper  part  of  the  Mother's  head  including 
the  eyes  and  a  portion  of  the  left  side  and 
upper  right  corner. 

A  similar  group  by  Tino  is  a  part  of  the 
Kress  Collection  in  New  York  (Fig.  2). 
It  is  set  in  a  rounded,  dentil-lined  circle 
from  which  it  appears  to  spill  out  at  the 
bottom  and  shows  the  figures  in  much  the 
same  relationship  as  our  own  group.  This 
time  the  Mother  supports  the  Child  at 
His  waist  and  beneath  His  right  foot,  but 
the  effect  of  delicate  balance  and  upward 


sweep  is  present  here,  as  in  the  Museum's 
example.  He  holds  a  book  in  His  left  hand 
while  blessing  with  His  right.  The  Virgin 
is  crowned  and  veiled. 

Both  reliefs  show  the  emphasis  which 
Tino,  although  born  and  trained  in  Siena, 
placed  on  the  form  of  the  body  beneath 
the  folds  of  the  garments.  This  is  true  of 
the  Kress  example,  even  though  the  relief 
here  is  somewhat  shallower  in  the  lower 
portion  where  the  figures  flow  across  the 
border  of  the  roundel.  Especially  striking 
is  the  similarity  of  type  in  the  faces  of  both 
pairs  of  figures,  particularly  the  lips  and 
chin  of  the  Child  and  the  rounded  jaw  of 
the  Mother.  The  same  French  Gothic 
grace  of  line  which  Tino,  a  pupil  of  Gio- 
vanni Pisano,  brought  from  Siena  and 
Pisa  to  the  Angevin  court  at  Naples  is 
evident  in  each  composition  and  serves  as 
a  leavening  agent  to  the  increasingly 
Italian  corporeality  of  the  figures. 

M.  D.  H. 


PORTRAIT  OF  FEDERIGO  DA  MONTEFELTRO,  DUKE  OF  URBINO 

Marble  Relief  by  Laurana 


Laurana's  male  portraits  are  less  known 
than  his  female  busts,  which  have  been 
the  pride  of  the  greatest  American  col- 
lectors since  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth 
century  (Frick,  Mellon,  Rockefeller).  Yet, 
in  recent  times  several  male  portraits  in 
relief  and  bust  form  have  turned  up, 
(some  as  companion  pieces  of  famous 
female  portraits)  which  prove  that  Laurana, 
in  spite  of  the  delicate  touch  of  his  Sla- 
vonian art,  was  as  capable  in  characterizing 
men  as  women. 

Francesco  Laurana  was  born  in  Zara, 
Dalmatia,  about  1430,  was  educated  in 
Venice,  and  worked  in  Central  Italy  as 
well  as  in  Naples  and  Sicily  and  later  in 
France.  Federigo  of  Urbino  (1422-82)  must 
have  asked  him  about  1475  to  come  to  his 
court,  where  he  sculptured  a  portrait  bust 
of  his  wife  Battista  Sforza  (now  in  the 
Museo  Nazionale,  Florence).  Two  reliefs 
of  the  Duke  and  the  Duchess  by  Laurana 
are  now  in  the  Museum  at  Pesaro,  and  a 
relief  portrait  of  the  Duke  alone  is  in  the 
Museo  Nazionale,  Florence.  To  this  must 
be  added  the  marble  relief  recently  acquired 
by  the  North  Carolina  Museum  of  Art. 

No  one  could  equal  Laurana  in  the 
refinement  of  technique,  the  smooth  sur- 
face, the  fine  spacing  of  his  relief  figures 


within  the  frame  and  the  exquisite  lettering 
surrounding  them.  What  Lionello  Venturi 
stressed  as  characteristic  of  the  artist,  the 
smooth  roundness  of  his  forms  and  the 
cubic  construction  of  the  heads,  occurs 
also  in  our  relief  portrait,  where  the  circular 
outline  is  repeated  in  the  silhouette  of  the 
head  and  face,  as  well  as  in  the  neck  and 
breastplate. 

The  Duke  of  Urbino,  one  of  the  most 
famous  rulers  of  the  early  Renaissance,  was 
no  less  remarkable  as  condottiere  than  as 
art  patron,  and  is  known  from  other  por- 
traits executed  in  medals  and  in  paintings; 
best  known  are  those  by  Piero  della 
Francesca  and  Justus  van  Gent.  They  all 
show  him  in  left  profile,  as  he  had  lost 
his  right  eye  in  a  tournament.  The  wound 
he  had  received  had  also  affected  his  nose 
which  shows  a  deep  cut  at  the  bridge. 
In  spite  of  this,  the  determination  of  his 
strong  character  is  clearly  brought  out. 

(Our  relief  was  first  exhibited  in  the 
Exhibition,  Italian  Sculpture  from  1200- 
1500,  held  at  the  Detroit  Institute  of  Arts 
in  1938,  catalogue  No.  98.  For  Laurana's 
portrait  busts  of  women  see  the  Art  Quarterly, 
Autumn  1942.) 

W.  R.  V. 


15 


A  RELIEF  BY  BENEDETTO  BRIOSCO 


Active  in  Lombardy  From  1483  to  1506 


One  of  the  triumphs  of  Italian  Renais- 
sance art  is  the  exquisite  decoration  in 
marble  on  church  facades  and  on  the 
interiors  of  churches  and  private  palaces. 
Some  of  the  marble  sculptors  like  Francesco 
di  Simone,  Giuliano  di  San  Gallo,  and 
Christoforo  Romano  are  often  better  in 
their  decorative  work  than  in  isolated 
figural  compositions.  Especially  in  North 
Italy,  where  the  personalities  in  sculpture 
were  less  pronounced  than  in  Florence  and 
Siena,  decorative  sculpture  reached  a  high 
point  of  perfection.  There  the  best  known 
example  of  the  early  Renaissance  is  the 
Certosa  near  Pavia,  where  the  fagade  of  the 
church  and  every  early  altar  and  tomb 
inside  is  done  in  the  most  exquisite  orna- 
mental design,  worked  out  in  marble  with 
an  unbelievable  ease  and  skill.  The  leading 
artist  there,  after  Amadeo  had  left,  was 
Benedetto  Briosco,  who  executed  a  series 
of  the  finest  facade  reliefs  as  well  as  the 
tomb  of  Gian  Galeazzo  Visconti  with  its 
large  standing  Madonna  in  the  arch  at 
the  top. 

We  can  attribute  to  him  the  excellent 


marble  frieze  (Fig.  1),  perhaps  intended 
for  a  mantlepiece,  which  the  Museum  of 
Art  has  recently  acquired.  It  obviously 
represents  a  classical  allegory  with  opti- 
mistic import,  perhaps  Apollo  on  one  end 
and  Venus  as  Fertility  on  the  other  end; 
Apollo  accompanied  by  the  cupids  with 
torches,  one  of  the  torches  held  by  a  three- 
headed  dog  (Cerberus?);  Venus  sitting  in 
a  chariot  drawn  by  two  swans,  one  of  which 
has  fallen  and  is  studied  with  interest  by 
an  owl. 

What  it  represents  is  not  so  important 
as  the  remarkable  execution  of  the  lively 
moving  figures,  which  are  placed  on  a 
widely  spaced  background  in  a  fine  staccato 
rhythm.  While  the  figures  are  raised  to  a 
full  relief,  the  other  parts  of  the  ornaments 
—the  tree  with  bow  and  quiver  in  the 
center,  the  festoons  attached  to  the  upper 
border — are  less  raised  and  their  outlines 
disappear  in  the  background  with  softness 
and  finesse.  The  details  are  full  of  precise 
observation,  the  drapery  of  Apollo,  the 
Cerberus  dog  who,  like  a  terrier,  jumps  at 
the  cupid,  grasping  him  on  his  hip,  the 


Fig.  1.  Benedetto  Briosco  (Italian,  active  Lombardy,  1483-1506),  Marble  Relief,  13  x  47  inches. 
Museum  Purchase  Fund. 


17 


swans  and  the  amusing  owl,  and  the  deli- 
cately modelled  Venus  with  her  twisted 
hair. 

Works  by  Benedetto  Briosco  are  rare  in 
our  country.  There  is  in  Detroit  an  angel's 
head  which  he  executed  (Fig.  2),  and 
which  was  given  to  our  artist  while  it  was 
still  in  the  Trivulzio  collection,  Milan. 
With  its  long  curly  hair,  it  can  be  compared 
to  the  Apollo  in  our  relief. 

Benedetto  Briosco's  work  on  the  Milan 


cathedral  began  in  1483;  his  famous  statue 
of  Saint  Agnes  shows  that  in  his  early 
period  he  was  influenced  by  the  better- 
known  Amadeo.  Later,  when  he  created 
our  relief,  he  was  nearer  to  Christoforo 
Romano,  the  friend  of  Isabella  d'Este,  who 
also  participated  in  the  Certosa  decorations. 
Briosco  worked  at  the  Certosa  from  1491 
to  1500,  and  in  his  later  period  at  the 
cathedral  of  Cremona  (1506). 

W.  R.  V. 


Fig.  2.  Benedetto  Briosco,  Head  of  an  Angel. 
Detroit  Institute  of  Arts. 


18 


19 


HERCULES 


Bronze  Statuette  By  Francesco  da  San  Gallo 


The  bronze  statuette  (Fig.  1)  which  has 
recently  been  presented  to  the  Museum  by 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  James  E.  Hall  can  be 
attributed  to  Francesco  da  San  Gallo 
(1494-1576),  son  of  the  famous  architect 
Giuliano  da  San  Gallo,  as  it  agrees  stylisti- 
cally with  the  Hercules  of  the  Clarence  H. 
Mackay  collection.  (Cat.  No.  21;  Fig.  2). 
Although  of  much  smaller  compass,  the 
proportions  and  emaciated  forms  of  the 
body  as  well  as  the  contraposto  of  arms 
and  legs  are  very  similar.  Also,  character- 
istic for  the  artist  is  the  fact  that  the  surface 
of  the  bronze  is  not  carefully  chiselled, 
but  as  in  most  bronzes  by  this  artist  left 
in  the  rough  state  in  which  it  came  out  of 
the  furnace.  We  feel  in  both  instances  the 
terra  cotta  model  underneath  the  bronze, 
which  is  cast  with  the  "lost  wax"  (cire 
perdu)  process  and  therefore  exists  in  only 
one  example.  The  sketchy  treatment  of  the 
surface,  which  results  in  the  flickering  light 
thrown  on  prominent  sections  of  the  body, 
gives  to  the  statuette  a  modern  look, 
reminding  us  of  works  of  the  time  of  Rodin, 
especially  as  the  outlines  have  the  sharply 
etched  character  of  an  Impressionist  bronze. 

Francesco  da  San  Gallo  belongs  among 
the  mannerist  sculptors  who  appeared 
during  Michelangelo's  lifetime;  they  tried 
in  vain  to  emulate  the  great  master,  distort- 
ing his  ideas  but  also  adding  new  elements 
to  the  High  Renaissance  style — elements 
which  point  frequently  to  a  far-off  future. 
These  artists,  with  their  warped  person- 
alities, have  been  of  special  interest  in 
recent  studies.  We  learn  that  Francesco  da 
San  Gallo  as  a  boy  was  taken  by  his  father 


to  Rome  where  he  studied  in  the  company 
of  Michelangelo  the  newly  discovered 
Hellenistic  statue  of  Laocoon.  This  statue, 
which  was  copied  by  several  of  the  manner- 
ists, must  have  made  a  lifelong  impression 
on  Francesco.  All  his  compositions  show 
very  deep  suffering,  expressed  in  the 
twisted  contortion  of  the  bodies,  although 
instead  of  the  dramatic  force  of  the  Laocoon 

Fig.  2.  Francesco  da  San  Gallo,  Hercules.  Col- 
lection of  Clarence  H.  Mackay.  Bronze,  height 
1 5 3^  inches. 


20 


we  find  in  his  figures  an  elegiac  resignation 
to  their  destiny.  Even  Hercules,  with  all 
his  strength  which  he  preserves  in  his 
worn-out  muscular  body,  appears  languid 
in  his  attitude  and  almost  sad  and  senti- 
mental in  the  expression  of  his  face. 

Francesco  da  San  Gallo  was  a  remarkable 
portrait  sculptor — one  of  his  best  busts  is 


the  one  of  Giovanni  della  Buonde  Nere  in 
the  Museo  Nazionalc,  Florence — but  even 
here  we  observe  the  melancholic  and  often 
morose  features  which  are  characteristic  of 
works  of  the  "lost  generation"  of  the 
Florentine  mannerists. 

W.  R.  V. 


21 


THE  BIRD  CATCHER  BY  CIOVANNI  DA  BOLOGNA 


The  bronze  statuette  of  the  "Bird 
Catcher,"  gift  of  the  children  of  Mrs. 
James  L.  Fleming"  (see  cover),  is  one  of 
the  best  known  of  the  genre  figures  of 
the  master  who,  coming  from  Douai, 
became  the  greatest  bronze  sculptor  in 
Florence  after  Michelangelo  in  the  six- 
teenth century.  While  in  his  large  statues 
of  marble  and  bronze  he  followed  the 
Italian  trend  of  representing  mythological 
and  allegorical  subjects,  he  chose  genre 
scenes  for  some  of  his  statuettes,  in  accord- 
ance with  his  northern  origin.  The  "Bird 
Catcher"  is  a  peasant  who  catches  singing- 


birds  while  they  are  resting  from  their 
migratory  trips  from  northern  Europe  to 
Africa;  he  throws  a  light  upon  them  and 
kills  them  with  a  club. 

This  genre  figure  exists  in  several  replicas 
— for  instance,  in  the  Museo  Nazionale 
and  the  Detroit  Museum.  It  is  important 
from  a  forward  point  of  view,  as  it  gives 
an  all-around  view  of  the  figure,  with  open 
extremities  and  a  fantastic  silhouette,  in 
preparation  for  the  impressionistic  sculpture 
up  to  the  time  of  Rodin. 

W.  R.  V. 


22 


A  BRONZE  PLAQUE  BY  CLOD  I  ON 


By  W.  R.  Valentiner 


It  was  at  the  dawn  of  the  French  Revo- 
lution that  Clodion,  the  greatest  French 
sculptor  of  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth 
century  (1738-1814),  created  the  bronze 
relief  with  Bacchanalian  scenes  which  has 
recently  been  acquired  by  the  Museum 
(Fig.  I).1  The  inscription  on  the  back  of 
the  plaque,  cast  into  the  bronze  from  the 
terracotta  model  (Fig.  2),  gives  the  date 
1787;  that  is,  two  years  before  convening 
of  the  assembly  of  the  estates  in  Paris,  an 
event  which  started  the  Revolution. 

Clodion,  like  Boucher,  was  a  member  of 
the  "Ancien  Regime"  in  his  taste  and 
philosophy  of  life.  He  worked  for  the  court 
and  still  more  for  the  rich  Parisian  aris- 

1  Measurements:  81  •>  x  20  inches.  Acquired  through 
the  Museum  Purchase  Fund,  1957. 


tocracy  and  had  adapted  their  pleasure- 
loving  way  of  living,  expressed  in  a  frivolous 
and  gay  art  of  charming  decorative  quality. 
The  contents  of  this  art  were  mostly 
mythological  subjects  taken  from  antiquity 
and  allegories  of  love  and  desire.  Clodion's 
greatest  activity  started  with  a  long  stay  in 
Rome  (1762-1771),  where  he  already  was 
receiving  orders  from  Catherine  of  Russia, 
and  lasted  until  the  beginning  of  the 
Revolution.  Unlike  Boucher,  he  had  the 
misfortune  to  live  through  the  Revolution 
and  the  Napoleonic  era  (to  1814)  without 
being  able  to  adapt  himself  to  the  new 
taste  of  the  bourgeoisie. 

One  of  the  few  members  of  the  highest 
society  who  had  kept  their  wealth  and 
escaped  just  before  the  outbreak  of  the 


Fig.  1.  Claude  Michel  Clodion  (French,  1738-1814),  Plaque  Representing  a  Bacchanale.  Bronze, 
S}/2  x  20  inches.  Museum  Purchase  Fund. 


23 


Fig.  2.  Signature  on  Reverse  of  the  Bronze  Plaque  (Fig.  1). 


Revolution  was  the  Cardinal  de  Rohan. 
Clodion  must  have  had  a  close  relationship 
with  him,  as  the  bronze  plaque  is  dedicated 
to  him.  It  reads,  on  the  reverse,  "A  Mon- 
seigneur  le  Prince  de  Rohan,  hommage 
de  l'auteur,  M.  C.  1787."  We  have  no 
other  document  which  mentions  the  rela- 
tionship between  the  artist  and  the  Prince, 
but,  according  to  a  communication  of  the 
excellent  French  scholar  Louis  Reau,  works 
by  Clodion  are  mentioned  in  the  inventory 
of  the  Prince's  collection. 

In  studying  the  subject  of  the  plaque, 
which  is  signed  (in  addition  to  the  initials 
of  the  artist  on  the  back)  with  the  full 
name  of  Clodion  in  the  right  front  corner, 
we  find  that  it  represents  one  of  those 
Bacchanalia  of  the  classical  period  which 
Bullfinch  in  his  Age  of  Fable  or  Beauties  of 
Mythology  (1898)  describes  in  the  following- 
terms:  "A  feast  of  Bacchus  that  was  per- 
mitted to  occur  but  once  in  three  years. 
It  was  attended  by  the  most  shameless 
orgies   imaginable.    Women   raging  with 


madness  or  enthusiasm,  their  heads  thrown 
backwards,  with  dishevelled  hair  and  carry- 
ing in  their  hands  thyrsus-staffs,  cymbals, 
swords  or  serpents.  Sileni,  Pans,  Satyrs, 
Centaurs  and  other  beings  of  a  like  kind, 
made  up  the  processions." 

This  description  obviously  refers  to  the 
scenes  which  occur  on  many  Roman 
sarcophagi,  and  Clodion  must  also  have 
taken  his  inspiration  from  these  scenes 
during  his  stay  in  Rome.  The  scene  as 
rendered  by  Clodion  differs,  however,  in 
several  respects.  It  appears  less  "shameless," 
as  the  figures  represented  are  nearly  all 
creatures  of  the  imagination — men,  women, 
and  children  all  with  box  feet  (with  the 
exception  of  two  women  and  two  old  men), 
who  are  devoted  to  their  task  of  sacrificing 
a  ram  upon  an  altar  in  front  of  a  herma 
representing  the  bearded  Dionysos.  A 
female  satyr  plunges  her  knife  into  the 
throat  of  the  animal,  while  a  satyr  holds 
up  a  dish  to  receive  the  blood  for  the  sacri- 
fice. To  the  right  another  woman,  kneeling, 


24 


tries  to  hold  down  another  ram  which  is 
probably  the  next  one  to  be  sacrificed. 
Satyrs  and  Pans  are  bringing  fruit  baskets 
and  branches  with  grapes  as  offerings  to 
the  God.  A  woman  satyr  holds  a  snake  up 
to  him  and  satyrs  blowing  trumpets  accom- 
pany the  scene;  in  the  right  corner  children 
carry  the  drunken  Bacchus  child  away  in 
a  scene  which  reminds  us  of  Van  Dyck's 
children's  bacchanale  in  our  collection. 

The  women  neither  have  dishevelled 
hair  nor  appear  drunk,  although  the  whole 
scene  has  an  undertone  of  sensuousness  due 
to  the  close  pressing  together  of  the  volup- 


tuous nude  bodies  into  a  compact  mass  of 
fourteen  figures  whose  intertwining  curves 
give  a  continuous  rhythm  of  movement  to 
the  vivacious  composition. 

If  we  observe  that  the  best  artists  in 
France  were  occupied  with  such  or  similar 
scenes  following  the  wishes  of  their  aristo- 
cratic patrons,  while  the  ground  was  shak- 
ing with  the  unrest  of  hungering  masses, 
we  become  aware  that  they  were  dancing 
upon  a  volcano.  The  Prince  de  Rohan 
belonged,  certainly  unwillingly,  to  those 
who  helped  to  stir  up  the  antagonistic- 
feelings  of  the  lower  classes  (not  against 


Fig.  3.  Clodion,  Jardiniere.  Formerly  J.  Pierpont  Morgan  Collection. 


25 


Fig.  4.  Clodion,  Detail  of  Jardiniere  (Fig.  3). 


him,  but  against  the  court)  when  he  was 
involved  in  the  diamond  necklace  scandal 
of  Marie  Antoinette  (1786),  just  a  year 
before  Clodion  executed  the  bronze  plaque 
for  him. 

Cardinal  Louis  de  Rohan  (1734-1803), 2 
whose  ancient  family  was  always  connected 
with  the  bishopric  of  Strassburg,  became 
Ambassador  to  the  Austrian  court  in  1772, 
where  he  astounded  the  Viennese  through 
his  lavish  festivals.  He,  however,  made 
himself  obnoxious  to  Marie  Antoinette  by 
complaining  to  her  mother,  the  Empress 
Maria  Theresa,  about  her  daughter's  waste- 
ful habits,  while  at  the  same  time  he  spread 
gossip  about  the  Austrian  court  in  Paris. 
Marie  Antoinette  considered  him  her  great- 
est enemy.  But  being  ambitious  and  longing 

2  In  reference  to  the  ensuing  account,  compare  the 
following  articles  in  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica,  11th 
edition:  "Rohan,  Louis  Rene  Edouard,  Cardinal  de," 
and  "Diamond  Necklace." 


for  the  position  of  the  prime  minister  of 
France,  he  did  all  he  could  to  reconcile 
her;  and  in  this  endeavor — whether  it  is 
true  or  not  we  do  not  know — he  is  said 
to  have  become  greatly  enamored  of  the 
Queen,  whom  he  had  never  met.  He  came 
under  the  influence  of  impostors,  the  lead- 
ing one  being  a  Countess  de  Lamotte,  who 
had  connections  with  the  famous  Cagliostro, 
and  other  questionable  characters  and  was 
told  that  he  could  win  the  favor  of  the 
Queen  if  he  would  present  to  her  a  fabulous 
diamond  necklace,  which  she  desired.  The 
fact  is  that  the  necklace  had  been  offered 
for  sale  to  Marie  Antoinette  before,  but  she 
had  refused  to  buy  it.  Rohan  was  taken  in 
by  the  impostors,  who  kept  up  a  corre- 
spondence with  him  thought  to  have  origi- 
nated from  the  Queen  and  who  enacted 
a  scene  at  night  in  the  Park  of  Versailles, 
wherein  a  woman  resembling  the  Queen 
appeared  and  from  a  distance  expressed  her 
approval  of  the  actions  of  the  Prince,  to 
whom  she  seemed  favorably  disposed.  The 
Prince  acquired  the  necklace — for  a  sum 
of  1,600,000  livre — and  paid  for  it  in 
installments.  He  left  it  in  the  hands  of 
the  impostors,  who  promised  to  deliver  it 
to  the  Queen,  but  who  instead  escaped 
with  it  later  to  England.  They  had  promised 
the  Prince  that  Marie  Antoinette  would 
wear  the  necklace  at  the  next  court  recep- 
tion. When  the  Queen  did  not  wear  it  and 
acted  no  differently  toward  the  Prince  in 
public,  he  became  suspicious,  and  the 
Queen  was  informed  of  his  intentions  and 
the  sale  of  the  necklace.  She  told  the  King, 
who  did  not  hesitate  to  have  the  Prince 
arrested  at  once  in  the  chapel  at  Versailles, 
where  he  was  preparing  the  mass  for  the 
court. 

The  trial  which  followed,  in  1786,  excited 


26 


the  public  to  a  high  degree  and  increased 
the  hatred  against  Marie  Antoinette,  who 
was  thought  to  be  guilty.  The  Cardinal  de 
Rohan  was  acquitted,  which  was  considered 
to  be  a  victory  over  the  court  and  the 
unpopular  Queen.  The  scandal  was  used 
by  the  revolutionary  party  for  propaganda 
purposes  and  later  in  the  prosecution  of 
the  Queen,  whose  life  ended  on  the  scaffold. 

The  Prince  was  exiled  and  returned  to 
the  archbishopric  of  Strassburg;  he  was 
elected  in  1789  to  the  estates  general  but 
refused  to  take  the  oath  upon  the  constitu- 
tion. He  retired  to  Ettenheim,  in  the  Ger- 
man part  of  his  diocese,  where  he  died  in 
1803. 

If  we  accept  the  probability  that  the 
Prince  de  Rohan  was  one  of  the  patrons 
of  the  artist  before  the  date  of  the  plaque, 
in  1787,  it  is  possible  that  Codion  dedicated 
it  to  him  in  recognition  of  his  popular 
victory  at  the  trial  of  1786.  This  same 
plaque  was  later  incorporated  as  the  front 
piece  in  a  jardiniere  (Fig.  3)  which  formed 
part  of  the  J.  Pierpont  Morgan  collection 
of  bronzes.  This  jardiniere  has  in  addition 
to  the  plaque  two  narrow  end  pieces  in 
bronze  representing  still  lifes  of  sacrificial 
objects  (Fig.  4)  and  on  the  reverse  a  group 
of  five  cupids  pushing  forward  a  goat,  one 


3  Mr.  George  Wildenstein  has  kindly  provided  the 
photographs  of  the  Morgan  jardiniere.  A  third  version 
of  our  plaque  is  in  the  fine  collection  of  bronzes  belong- 
ing to  Dr.  Oelze  at  Amsterdam. 

Neither  the  bronze  plaque  nor  the  jardiniere  are 
mentioned  in  the  scanty  literature  on  Clodion — see 
especially  the  articles  in  Thieme- Becker  and  in  Gazette  des 
Beaux  Art,  1892  (Jules  Guiffrey),  and  H.  Thirion,  Les 
Adam  et  Clodion,  1885. 


of  the  cupids  sitting  on  the  goat  and  holding 
a  cup  of  wine  in  his  hand.  It  is  enframed 
by  a  fine  Louis  XVI  mounting  of  gilt 
bronze.  On  each  corner  appear  statuettes 
of  flute  players,  and  at  the  sides  of  the 
large  front  plaque  two  young  priestesses 
holding  sacrificial  dishes,  all  obviously  by 
the  hand  of  Clodion.3 

Appendix 

The  following  description  of  the  Jardi- 
niere (not  the  relief)  was  furnished  by  the 
present  owner,  Mr.  George  Wildenstein: 

CLAUDE  MICHEL  CLODION 
(French:  1738-1814) 
Description: 

Bronze  and  marble  jardiniere 
Height:  20  inches 

Inscribed  on  both  ends:  Aevohe  Dionisius; 
on  the  bottom  of  the  front  panel:  Son 

Excelonce  Monseigneur  le  Prince  de  Rohan  M. 
Clodion  sc  1784 

Catalogued: 

Montreal,  Museum  of  Fine  Arts,  The 
eighteenth  century  art  of  France  and  England, 
April  27-May  31,  1950,  No.  104 

Exhibited: 

1910-1915  New  York,  Metropolitan  Mu- 
seum of  Art 

1950  Montreal,  Museum  of  Fine  Arts 
Collections: 

Prince  Louis  de  Rohan,  Archbishop  of 
Strasbourg 

Due  de  Narbonne-Pelet 

J.  Pierpont  Morgan,  New  York 


27 


BRONZE  STATUETTE  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER  BY  THOMAS  BALL 


Thomas  Ball  is  best  known  for  his  fine 
equestrian  statue  of  Washington  in  Boston 
(1860-64)  and  his  statue  of  Daniel  Webster 
in  Central  Park  in  New  York  (1876).  He 
was  one  of  the  few  outstanding  American 
sculptors  of  the  nineteenth  century  and 
reached  an  age  of  more  than  ninety  (1819- 
1911).  His  best  works  were  executed  in  the 
period  after  the  middle  of  the  century, 
when  American  literature  reached  its  height 
with  Whitman,  Melville,  and  Mark  Twain. 

Starting  as  a  clerk  and  a  painter,  he 
began  modelling  when  he  was  about 
thirty  and  made  his  success  with  a  few 
portrait  busts  of  small  size;  especially 
successful  were  the  one  of  Jenny  Lind  and 

Fig.  1.  Thomas  Ball  (American,  1819-1911), 
Daniel  Webster  (1782-1852).  Bronze,  height  30 
inches.  Gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Robert  Lee  Hum- 
ber,  Greenville. 


that  of  Napoleon.  To  these  first  works  be- 
long also  a  bust  of  the  well-known  American 
statesman  and  orator  Daniel  Webster  and  a 
statuette  of  the  same  person.  An  example  of 
the  latter  (Fig.  1)  with  the  date  1853  has 
been  given  to  the  Museum  by  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Robert  Lee  Humber.  In  addition  to  the 
signature  it  bears  the  statement,  "patent 
assigned  to  C.  W.  Nichols,"  which  proves 
that  a  patent  was  given  to  the  artist  so  as 
to  prevent  others  from  reproducing  his 
works.  Ball  patented  five  of  his  works  in 
this  manner:  The  portraits  of  the  two 
American  statesmen  Clay  and  Webster, 
the  Jenny  Lind,  and  the  Napoleon.  He 
probably  could  have  made  his  living  from 
the  sale  of  such  statuettes,  which  were  a 
pleasant  decoration  for  the  drawing  rooms 
and  the  interiors  of  the  time. 

It  is  important  to  know  that  he  executed 
our  statuette  at  Boston  in  1853,  before 
going  in  1854  to  Italy,  where  he  stayed 
intermittently  until  1897.  The  composition 
has  something  of  the  primitive  American 
character  comparable  to  some  of  the  early 
portraits  in  painting  of  this  period.  The 
figure  stands  solidly  upon  the  ground,  the 
feet  placed  one  next  to  the  other;  there  is 
no  pose  in  the  attitude  of  the  man,  but  his 
face,  especially  in  the  deep-set  eyes,  is 
most  impressive.  The  composition  is  almost 
rectangular;  the  drapery  (made  of  a  separ- 
ate piece  of  bronze),  thrown  over  a  column 
next  to  the  figure,  covers  the  opening  be- 
tween the  legs  and  gives  strength  to  the 
composition  by  building  it  up  from  a  broad 
base. 

That  the  artist  lacked  imagination  we 
can  realize  from  the  fact  that  he  repeated 
the  statuette  in  the  over-life-sized  statue  in 


28 


New  York's  Central  Park  (Fig.  2),  which 
was  unveiled  in  1876.1  In  this  case,  he  had 
the  monument  cast  in  Munich,  while  for 
our  statuette  the  casting  was  homemade. 

Like  most  American  sculptors  of  the 
period,  Ball  was  best  in  his  portrait  busts 
and  statues,  for  genre  scenes  and  classical 
figures  follow  the  literary  trend  of  the  time 
and  are  inferior  in  quality,  nor  do  they 
show  much  understanding  of  the  form 
problems.  Our  statuette  and  the  large 
statue  connected  with  it,  and  the  bust  of 
Henry  Clay,  are  the  only  portraits  done 
from  life  in  his  early  period;  the  busts  of 
Jenny  Lind  (1853)  and  of  Napoleon  (1857) 
are  done  from  photographs  or  paintings. 

W.  R.  V. 

1  Inscribed:  "Liberty  and  Union, /Now  and  Forever,/ 
One  and  Inseparable, /Daniel  Webster, /Presented  by,/ 
Gordon  W.  Burnham,/july  IV.  MDCCCLXXVI." 


Fig.  2.  Thomas  Ball,  Daniel  Webster.  Near  West 
Seventy-Second  Street  Entrance,  Central  Park, 
New  York. 


29 


CHECKLIST  OF  ADDITIONAL  SCULPTURES 
IN  THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  MUSEUM  OF  ART 


By  May  ] 

Collection  of  Egyptian,  Greek,  Roman, 
and  other  sculptures  of  smaller  size.  Lit.: 
North  Carolina  Museum  of  Art  Bulletin,  Vol. 
I,  No.  2,  Raleigh,  pp.  21-23  ("Opening  of 
Four  New  Galleries  of  Early  Sculpture  and 
Decorative  Arts").  Gift  of  Dr.  and  Mrs. 
Fred  Olsen,  Guilford,  Connecticut. 


Head  of  a  Goddess.  Greece  (School  of  Praxiteles), 
4th  century  B.C.  Marble,  height  9%  inches. 
Gift  of  Mr.  Nicholas  M.  Acquavella,  New  York. 


wis  Hill 

"Head  of  a  Goddess."  Greece  (School  of 
Praxiteles),  4th  century  B.C.  Marble, 
height:  9^4  inches.  Gift  of  Mr.  Nicholas  M. 
Acquavella,  New  York. 

"Portrait  Head  from  a  Mummy."  Egyp- 
tian (Ptolemaic),  323-30  B.C.  Plaster, 
height  10  inches.  Illustrated,  Vol.  I,  No.  2, 


Bacchus.  Greece,  2nd  or  3rd  century  B.C. 
Marble,  height  66  inches.  Lent  by  Dr.  and  Mrs. 
John  D.  Humber,  San  Francisco. 


30 


Hercules.  Italy  (Rome),  2nd  century  A.D. 
Marble,  height  66  inches.  Gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Jack  Linsky,  New  York. 

p.  27.  Gift  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Fred  Olsen, 
Guilford,  Connecticut. 

"Bacchus."  Greece,  2nd  or  3rd  century 
B.C.  Marble,  height  66  inches.  Coll.: 
Pierpont  Morgan,  New  York.  Lent  by  Dr. 
and  Mrs.  John  D.  Humber,  San  Francisco. 

"Hercules."  Italy  (Rome),  2nd  century 
A.D.  Marble,  height  65  inches.  Gift  of 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Jack  Linsky,  New  York. 

"St.  Magdalene."  France,  14th  century. 
Limestone,  height  43  inches.  Gift  of  Mr. 
Anthony  J.  Pisani,  New  York. 

School  of  Tino  da  Camaino,  "St.  Cath- 
erine." Italy  (Naples),  14th  century.  Marble 


relief,  diameter  21  inches.  Gift  of  Dr.  and 
Mrs.  W.  Lunsford  Long,  Jr.,  Raleigh. 

Donatello    (Italian,    1386-1466),  "Ma- 


St.  Magdalene.  France,  14th  century.  Limestone, 
height  43  inches.  Gift  of  Dr.  Anthony  J.  Pisani, 
New  York. 


31 


School  of  Tino  da  Camaino,  St.  Catherine. 
Italy  (Naples),  14th  century.  Marble  relief, 
diameter  21  inches.  Gift  of  Dr.  and  Mrs. 
W.   Lunsford   Long,   Jr.,  Raleigh, 


Bust  of  Henry  IV.  Italy,  16th  century.  Bronze, 
height  3}<4  inches.  Gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Arthur  L.  Erlanger,  New  York. 


donna  and  Child."  Polychrome  relief 
(stucco  on  wood),  27  x  26  inches.  Coll.: 
Stefano  Bandini;  Werner  Weisbach,  Berlin. 
Lit.:  Paul  Schubring,  Donatello  (Klassiker 
der  Kunst),  Stuttgart,  1922,  p.  167.  Illus- 
trated, Vol.  I,  No.  1,  Fig.  1.  Anonymous 
gift. 

Christoforo  Mantegazza  (Italian,  died 
1482),  "The  Deposition."  Marble  relief, 
11  ys  x  7^8  inches.  Museum  Purchase  Fund. 

Antonio  Federighi  (Italian,  1420P-1490),  Ma- 
donna and  Child.  Marble  relief,  24^  x  14^ 
inches.  Robert  F.  Phifer  Bequest. 


32 


Antonio  Federighi  (Italian,  1420P-1490), 
"Madonna  and  Child."  Marble  relief, 
24^  x  14%  inches.  Coll.:  Palazzo  Mal- 
vezzi,  Siena;  Dr.  Preston  P.  Satterwhite, 
New  York.  Robert  F.  Phifcr  Bequest. 

Henry  IV  (portrait  bust).   Italy,  16th 

century.  Bronze,  height  3  34  inches;  with 

base,  6  inches.  Gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Arthur  L.  Erlanger,  New  York. 

Elephant.  Italy  (Padua),  about  1500. 
Bronze,  height  4\2  inches;  length  8  inches. 
Gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Arthur  L.  Erlanger, 
New  York. 

"Madonna  and  Child."  Germany  (Lower 
Rhine),  about  1500.  Boxwood,  height  83^ 
inches.  Illustrated,  Vol.  I,  No.  2,  p.  31. 
Gift  of  Dr.  Frederick  Mont,  New  York. 

Benvenuto  Cellini  (Italian,  1500-1571), 
"Neptune."  Bronze,  height  93-2  inches. 
Lit.:  Ncrth  Carolina  Museum  of  Art  Bulletin, 
Vol.  I,  No.  3,  pp.  5-10;  illustrated  on 
cover  and  in  Figs.  1,  3,  and  4.  Gift  of 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Arthur  W.  Levy,  Jr.,  Raleigh. 

Elephant.  Italy  (Padua),  about  1500.  Bronze, 
height  43^2  inches.  Gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Arthur  L.  Erlanger,  New  York. 


Saturn.  Italy,  17th  century.  Bronze,  9  x  1834 
inches.  Gift  of  Mr.  William  Wilson,  New  York. 


Francois  Duquesnoy  (Flemish,  1594- 
1643),  "Sleeping  Cupid."  Marble,  length 
22  inches.  Coll.:  Lord  Michelham.  Lit.: 

Knight  on  Horseback.  France,  about  1700.  Bronze, 
113^2  x  \6}/2  inches.  Gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Ar- 
thur L.  Erlanger,  New  York. 


33 


Girl  Playing  a  Flute.  France,  second  half  of  18th 
century.  Terra  cotta,  height  64  inches.  Robert  F. 
Phifer  Bequest. 


North  Carolina  Museum  of  Art  Bulletin,  Vol.  I, 
No.  1,  pp.  9-10;  illustrated  in  Fig.  6. 
Gift  of  Marcia  Lady  Cunliffe-Owen,  New 
York. 

Francois  Duquesnoy  (Flemish,  1594- 
1643),  "The  Young  Christ"  and  "The 
Virgin"  (companion  pieces).  Bronze,  height 
9  inches.  Lit. :  North  Carolina  Museum  of  Art 
Bulletin,  Vol.  I,  No.  1,  pp.  9-10;  illustrated 
in  Fig.  5.  Gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Arthur  W. 
Levy,  Jr.,  Raleigh. 

"Saturn."  Italy,  School  of  Bernini,  17th 
century.  Bronze  relief,  mounted,  length 
18J4  inches.  Gift  of  Mr.  William  Wilson, 
New  York. 

Agostino  Cornacchini  (Italian,  1685- 
1740),    "Angel   With   Scourge  Column" 


and  "Angel  With  the  Veil  of  Veronica." 
Marble,  heights  43  and  42  inches  respec- 
tively. Coll.:  Frank  Gair  Macomber;  Mu- 
seum of  Fine  Arts,  Boston.  Lit.:  North 
Carolina  Museum  of  Art  Bulletin,  Vol.  I, 
No.  4-5,  pp.  13-22;  illustrated  in  Figs. 
1  and  2.  Gifts  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Arthur  W. 
Levy,  Jr.,  Raleigh,  and  Mrs.  Garland  S. 
Tucker,  Raleigh,  respectively. 

"Knight  on  Horseback  With  Lance." 
France,  about  1700.  Bronze,  h:11^2  inches, 
•w\\(>]/2  inches.  Gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Arthur  L.  Erlanger,  New  York. 

"St.  Sebastian."  South  Germany,  about 
1750.  Boxwood,  height  13  inches.  Illustrated 
Vol.  I,  No.  2,  p.  31.  Gift  of  Mrs.  Betty 
Mont,  New  York. 

"Girl  Playing  a  Flute."  France,  second 


Joseph  Nollekens  (English,  1737-1823),  Bust  of 
William  Pitt.  Marble,  height  21]^  inches.  Gift 
of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Ralph  W.  Gardner,  Shelby. 


34 


half  of  18th  century.  Terra  cotta,  height 
64  inches.  Robert  F.  Phifer  Bequest. 

Joseph  Nollekens  (English,  1737-1823), 
"Bust  of  William  Pitt."  Marble,  height 
2734  inches  (with  base).  Gift  of  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Ralph  W.  Gardner,  Shelby. 

Hiram  Powers  (American,  1805-1873), 
"Bust  of  John  C.  Calhoun."  Marble, 
height  29^2  inches. 

Roy  Gussow  (American,  contemporary), 
"Metaphase."  Stainless  steel,  height  42 
inches.  Exhib.:  North  Carolina  Artisst' 
Competition,  1952.  Purchase  Award. 

Robert  A.  Howard  (American,  con- 
temporary), "Landscape  II."  Bronze, 
height  13^2  inches.  Exhib.:  North  Carolina 
Artists'  Competition,  1957.  Purchase 
Award. 

Hiram  Powers  (1805-1873),  Bust  of  John  C. 
Calhoun.  Marble,  height  29 3^2  inches. 


Roy  Gussow  (American,  contemporary),  Meta- 
phase. Stainless  steel,  height  48%  inches.  North 
Carolina  Artists'  Competition  Purchase  Award, 
1952. 


Robert  A.  Howard  (American,  contemporary), 
Landscape  II.  Bronze,  1 3 3^2  x  183^  inches.  North 
Carolina  Artists'  Competition  Purchase  Award, 
1957. 


35 


THE  LIFE  OF  AGOSTINO  CORNACCHINI 
BY  FRANCESCO  MARIA  NICCOLO  GABBURRI1 

Edited  By  Herbert  Keutner 


Agostino  Cornacchini,  sculptor  of  the 
city  of  Pescia  in  Tuscany,  was  born  in  the 
year  1685.  Taken  by  his  father  Lodovico 
to  Florence  with  the  whole  family,  he  was 
placed  at  the  age  of  eleven  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  celebrated  Giovanni  Battista 
Foggini,  sculptor  to  His  Excellency  Cosimo 
III,  Grand  Duke  of  Tuscany,  who,  when  he 
saw  the  spirited  beginnings  of  the  boy, 
said  that  he  was  truly  born  with  a  chisel 
in  his  hand.  Consequently,  aided  by  his 
own  natural  inclinations,  he  in  a  short 
time  made  such  remarkable  progress  that 
he  proved  himself  destined  to  be  a  sculptor 
by  nature,  according  to  his  master's  pre- 
diction. But  at  the  height  of  his  studies,  his 
father  died  and  he  became  the  protege  of 
a   Florentine    nobleman, 2    who  admired 

1  Francesco  Maria  Niccolo  Gabburri  was  born  at 
Florence  in  1675,  and  died  there  in  1742.  An  honorary 
member  of  the  Accademia  Clementina  at  Bologna,  in 
1717  a  member  of  the  Accademia  della  Crusca  at 
Florence,  and  between  1730  and  1740  acting  president 
of  the  Accademia  delle  Arti  del  Disegno,  he  was  one  of 
the  most  respected  art  critics,  collectors  and  patrons 
of  his  day.  The  Life  of  Agostino  Cornacchini,  here  published 
for  the  first  time,  belongs  to  a  comprehensive  manuscript 
of  artists'  lives,  which  was  bequeathed  to  the  Accademia 
della  Crusca  under  the  title  Pictorium  Abecedarium  and  is 
now  located  in  the  manuscript  collection  at  the  Bibli- 
oteca  Nazionale  at  Florence.  See  Julius  Schlosser,  La 
letteratura  artistica,  2nd  ed.,  Florence,  1956,  p.  474. 

His  Life  of  Cornacchini  is  valuable  not  only  because  it 
is  a  contemporary  index,  but  also  because  Gabburri  was 
his  friend  and  protector.  The  Florentine  Nobleman 
{Cavaliere  Fiorentino)  mentioned  in  the  beginning  of  the 
Life  was  none  other  than  Gabburri.  In  1722  he  owned 
not  only  small  sculptured  work  by  his  protege,  but  also 
a  large  number  of  drawings.  See  F.  Inghirami,  Storia  della 
Toscana,  Fiesole,  1844,  Vol.  13,  pp.  101  ff.  and  G.  Cam- 
pori,  Raccolta  di  Cataloghi  ed  lnventarii  inediti,  Modena  , 
1870,  pp.  570,  582  ff.  and  596. 

2  I.e.,  Francesco  M.  N.  Gabburri;  see  Note  1. 

3  Gabburri  lived  in  the  former  Palazzo  Giuntini,  Via 
Ghibellina  30  (the  present  owner  is  the  Cav.  Francesco 

i  Vivarelli-Colonna).  We  know  from  information  pro- 
vided by  one  of  the  drawings  in  his  collection  that  the 
.  decoration  was  in  a  room  on  the  ground  floor.  See 


him  greatly,  and  through  whose  assistance 
he  continued  to  develop  his  great  talent. 
He  was  soon  commissioned  to  execute  for 
his  patron's  own  home3  various  stucco 
decorations,  which  were  praised  by  his 
patron  and  by  all  professional  artists  and 
connoisseurs.  This  nobleman  moved  to 
Rome  in  1712. 4  He  took  the  artist  with 
him  and  kept  him  at  his  own  expense 
during  the  duration  of  his  residence  in 
that  city,  providing  not  only  all  that  was 
required  personally  but  also  all  that  was 
needed  for  his  art. 

Before  the  nobleman  returned  to 
Florence,  he  arranged  for  establishment 
of  the  artist  in  Rome,  as  evidence  of  his 
sincere  intention,  leaving  him  under  the 
protection  of  His  Eminence  Cardinal  Fab- 

Campori,  op.  cit.,  pp.  584-5:  ".  .  .  (un  disegno)  a  penna 
e  acquerello,  per  traverso  soldi  12,  alto  8,  fatto  per 
Tomato  di  una  camera  terrena  in  casa  il  sig.  Cav. 
Gabburri.  .  .  ."  This  decoration  was  defaced  between 
1820  and  1830  during  a  classicistic  restoration  of  the 
palace. 

4  With  Cornacchini's  removal  to  Rome  in  1712  we 
may  ask  what,  besides  the  decorations  mentioned,  was 
created  during  his  pre-Roman  period.  Without  the 
possibility  of  establishing  chronological  sequence,  the 
following  can  be  ascertained: 

1.  Stucco  decorations  in  the  Chapel  of  S.  Giovanni 
Gualberto  in  SS.  Trinita  at  Florence.  Of  this  work 
Gabburri  possessed  four  studies  of  columns,  capitals, 
medallions,  and  masks.  See  Campori,  op.  cit.,  pp. 
583-5.  During  the  purification  of  SS.  Trinita  between 
1881  and  1897,  these  decorations  were  removed  and 
subsequently  lost.  See  Walter  and  Elisabeth  Paatz, 
Die  Kirchen  von  Florenz,  Frankfurt  a.M.,  1940-54, 
V,  270  and  310. 

2.  Marble  statue  of  Pope  Clement  XI.  Curiously 
enough,  this  was  not  mentioned  in  the  Vita  by  Gab- 
burri. According  to  the  inscription  on  the  base,  the 
figure  was  executed  by  Cornacchini  in  the  old  tradi- 
tion and  was  erected  in  1710.  It  stood  originally  in  a 
niche  in  the  great  room  of  the  ducal  palace  at 
Urbino,  being  removed  in  1847  to  the  left  arm  of 
the  transept  in  the  cathedral  at  Urbino.  See  P. 
Gherardi,  Guida  di  Urbino,  Urbino,  1875,  p.  37, 
E.  Calzini,  Urbino  e  i  suoi  monumenti,  Rocca  S.  Cas- 


37 


broni,5  who  immediately  assigned  him 
residence  in  a  part  of  his  palace,  food  and 
a  studio  in  the  palace,  and  in  addition  from 
time  to  time  gave  him  subsistence  of  both 
clothing  and  money.  Studying  diligently 
in  such  surroundings,  he  sculptured  several 
marble  groups  for  His  Eminence,  one 
representing  the  "Birth"  and  the  other 
the  "Death  of  Our  Lord,"  executed  with 
great  animation,  intelligence,  diligence  and 
love.  These  groups  are  now  placed  in  the 
beautiful  library  of  Cardinal  Fabbroni, 
built  entirely  at  his  own  expense  near  the 
church  of  the  Congregation  of  the  Filippini 
at  Pistoia  for  the  benefit  of  the  young 

ciano,  1897,  p.  53,  and  also  W.  Hager,  D  ie  Ehrensla 
tuen  der  Ptipste,  Leipzig,  1929,  p.  70  and  Plate  36. 

3.  "Several  statues"  in  the  Academy  at  Bologna. 
Giampietro  Zanotti  reports  in  the  Storia  deW  Ac- 
cademia  Clementina  di  Bologna,  Bologna,  1739,  p.  57, 
that  in  the  year  1712  Cornacchini,  "today  the  most 
celebrated  sculptor  in  Rome,  was  the  generous  donor 
of  several  beautiful  and  valuable  statues."  Further 
details  about  these  statues  are  unknown. 

4.  Designs  for  scenery  and  costumes.  Gabburri's  col- 
lection of  drawings  contained  ten  sheets  for  an 
"accademia,"  a  musical  spectacle  which  took  place 
at  the  Teatro  della  Pergola  during  the  visit  of  the 
Grand  Elector  of  Saxony  to  Florence  in  1712.  See 
Gampori,  op.  cit.,  pp.  583-84. 

5.  Terra  cotta  statuette  of  Moses.  According  to  the 
inventory  of  1722  a  terra  cotta  statuette  of  Moses 
was  in  the  Gabburri  collection.  It  is  uncertain  whether 
this  work  comes  from  the  Florentine  period  or  from 
the  first  years  of  his  Roman  period.  See  Campori, 
op.  cit.,  p.  596. 

5  Cardinal  Carlo  Agostino  Fabbroni  was  born  in  1656 
at  Pistoia  and  died  in  1727  in  Rome.  He  was  Secretary 
to  Pope  Innocent  XII,  Secretary  of  the  Congregation  of 
the  Propaganda  Fide,  and  in  1 706  he  was  raised  to  the 
purple  by  Pope  Clement  XI.  His  valuable  theological 
library  was  bequeathed  to  Pistoia,  the  city  of  his  birth. 
See  the  document  of  presentation  of  May  26,  1726, 
found  among  other  documents  of  the  family  archives 
in  the  Biblioteca  Nazionale  at  Florence,  Raccolta  Rossi- 
Cassigoli,  Cass.  XII,  v,  1-2. 

For  a  biography  of  the  Cardinal  see  Serie  di  ritratti 
d'uomini  illustri  Toscani,  Florence,  1768,  II,  170  ff.,  or 
L.  Cardella,  Memorie  storiche  de'  Cardinali  della  santa 
romana  Chiesa,  Rome,  1792-97,  vol.  VIII,  101  ff. 

6  Both  marble  groups  (Figs.  1  and  2)  are  still  in  the 
Biblioteca  Fabbroniana  at  Pistoia,  flanking  the  entrance 
to  the  reading  room.  The  figures  were  willed  to  the 
library,  together  with  the  contents  of  the  library  itself. 
The  will  states:  ".  .  .  Doniamo  ancora  per  uso  della 
medesima  libreria  .  .  .  i  due  gruppi  di  marmo  scolpiti 
da  mano  di  insigne  Artefice,  rappresentanti  uno  la 


students  in  that  city.6  Continuing  to 
advance  in  the  perfection  of  his  art  and  to 
gain  fame,  Cornacchini  proved  himself 
worthy  of  the  protection  of  His  Eminence 
Cardinal  Fabbroni  and  the  Florentine 
nobleman,  after  a  few  years,  by  being  chosen 
by  His  Holiness  Pope  Clement  XI  to  exe- 
cute the  important  assignment  for  the  eques- 
trian statue  of  Charlemagne,  erected  in  the 
portico  of  S.  Peter's  opposite  the  celebrated 
equestrian  figure  of  Constantine  executed 
by  the  very  famous  Cavalier  Bernini.7  He 
sculptured  busts  of  two  Cardinals,  which  are 
seen  in  the  sacristy  of  S.  Carlo  al  Corso.8 
Nearby  is  the  beautiful  and  superbly  exe- 

Nativita  di  nostro  Sig.re  Cristo  e  Paltro  la  depositione 
della  Santa  Croce,  con  lor'  piedestalli,  esistenti  pre- 
sentemente  nel  nostro  appartamento  nobile  di 
Roma.  .  .  ."  (See  Note  5.)  We  assume  that  both  groups 
originated  in  the  years  1714-16.  Gabburri  owned  a 
sketch  of  the  "Birth  of  Christ":  "Due  disegni  di  lapis 
rosso  o  piuttosto  due  schizzi,  uno  d'un  Presepio,  fatto 
di  marmo  all'  Ecc.mo  card.  Fabbroni,  Paltro.  .  .  ." 
See  Campori,  op.  cit.,  p.  583. 

"Endymion,"  the  only  known  bronze  not  mentioned  in 
the  Vita,  is  assumed  to  have  originated  at  the  same  time 
An  example,  signed  and  dated  1716,  was  found  in  1907 
in  the  collection  of  L.  v.  Przybyslowski  at  Lemberg 
(now  Poland).  See  Kunst  und  Kunsthandwerk,  X,  534-35, 
with  illustration.  In  a  letter  from  Antonio  Balestra  to 
Gabburri,  dated  December  25,  1717,  the  bronze  Endy- 
mion seems  to  be  mentioned.  See  G.  Bottari-S.  Ticozzi, 
Raccolta  di  Lettere  .  .  .  2nd  ed.,  Milan,  1822,  II,  125.  In 
1722  the  terra  cotta  model  of  the  work  as  well  as  the 
bronze  itself  were  in  Gabburri's  possession.  See  Campori, 
op.  cit.,  p.  596.  An  additional  piece  from  the  collection 
of  the  Marchese  Gino  Capponi  was  seen  in  1724  in 
the  exhibition  of  the  Florentine  Academy  in  the  crossing 
of  SS.  Annunziata.  See  Nota  de'  quadri  e  opere  di  scultura 
.  .  .  Florence,  1724,  p.  22. 

7  The  equestrian  statue  of  Charlemagne  (Fig.  3), 
shown  in  1725  during  the  Holy  Year,  was  ordered  some 
time  before  1722,  probably  between  1718  and  1720. 
Gabburri  owned  two  drawings  for  the  work,  a  study  for 
the  horse  and  a  sketch  for  the  whole  monument  in  its 
niche.  See  Campori,  op.  cit.,  pp.  582-3.  Camillo  Rusconi 
mentioned  in  a  letter  to  Paolo  Girolamo  Piola  on 
November  7,  1722,  that  the  work  was  under  way.  See 
Bottari-Ticozzi,  op.  cit.,  VI,  182  and  also  Note  10. 

Relazione  della  Statua  equestre  di  Carlo  Maguo.  .  .  . 
Siena,  1725,  published  on  the  occasion  of  the  unveiling 
of  the  work,  showed  a  panel  on  the  base  of  the  monu- 
ment depicting  the  "Coronation  of  Charlemagne,"  in 
addition  to  the  equestrian  figure.  Nothing  is  known 
concerning  either  the  design  or  execution  of  this  relief 
by  Cornacchini. 

8  The  busts  of  both  cardinals,  Luigi  Omodei  (who 


38 


Fig.  3.  Cornacchini,  Charlemagne.  St.  Peter's,  Rorri' 


39 


cuted  statue  of  "Hope,"  placed  in  the 
church  of  Sacro  Monte  della  Pieta,9  which 
earned  the  applause  of  all  Rome,  and  in 
fact  one  cannot  praise  it  as  much  as  it 
deserves.  He  sent  to  Spain  the  statue  of 
the  "Beatified  Francesco  da  Regis"  for 
the  Order  of  the  Company  of  Jesus.10  For 
the  Cathedral  of  Orvieto  two  life-size 
angels,  "S.  Michael"  and  the  "Guardian 
Angel."  11  He  executed  a  bronze  group  for 
Her  Highness  Princess  Anna  Palatina,  rep- 
resenting "Judith  with  the  Head  of  Holo- 
fernes,"  which  was  sent  to  Florence  and 
is  seen  in  the  apartment  of  the  Elector, 
together  with  many  others  of  similar  scale, 
made  expressly  for  Her  Excellency  by 
various  artists  of  first  rank.12  After  the 
death  of  Clement  XI  and  of  his  successor 
Benedict  XIII,  Clement  XII,  a  Florentine 
of  the  great  house  of  the  Corsini,  having 

died  at  Rome  in  1706)  and  Ferdinando  D'Adda  (died 
Rome,  1719),  assumed  to  have  executed  between  1715 
and  1720,  are  still  in  the  sacristy  of  San  Carlo  al  Corso 
in  Rome.  For  biographies  of  the  cardinals,  see  Cardella, 
op.  cit.,  VIII,  7  ff.  and  18  ff. 

9  Today  in  the  Chapel  of  Monte  di  Pieta.  The  statue  is 
one  of  a  series  of  the  three  theological  virtues,  increased 
to  four  with  the  addition  of  the  figure  of  "Elemosina," 
executed  between  1720  and  1725.  Besides  Cornacchini's 
"Hope,"  the  figure  of  "Faith"  was  created  by  Francesco 
Moderati,  that  of  "Charity"  by  Giuseppe  Mazzuoli, 
and  that  of  "Elemosina"  by  Bernardo  Cametti.  See 
A.  Riccoboni,  Roma  nelV Arte:  La  Scultura,  Rome,  1942, 
pp.  235,  277,  279  and  283. 

10  Until  now  unknown,  the  recumbent  figure  of 
S.  Francesco  de  Regis  was  until  its  destruction  during 
the  Spanish  Civil  War  in  1936  in  the  Church  of  the 
Convent  of  Descalzadas  Reales  in  Madrid  (personal 
communication  from  Manuel  Lorente,  Madrid). 

Concerning  the  model  for  this  statue,  see  Camillo 
Rusconi's  letter  of  November  7,  1722,  to  Paolo  Girolamo 
Piola  (Bottari-Ticozzi,  op.  cit.,  VI,  182):  ".  .  .  V.S. 
sara  gia  informata  della  statua  equestre  di  Carlo  Magno, 
che  se  fa  dirimpetto  a  quella  del  Costantino  del  cav. 
Bernino,  dal  sig.  Agostino  Cornacchini,  scultore  fioren- 
tino,  il  quale  scopri  a  questi  giorni  un  suo  modello  della 
statua  di  un  santo  vescovo  alia  Rotonda  (Pantheon), 
che  subito  fu  ricoperto  per  vantaggio,  come  si  puo 
credere,  dell'autore." 

11  Delivered  in  1729,  both  figures  of  the  archangels 
Michael  and  Gabriel  are  found  today  to  the  right  and 
left  of  the  altar  of  the  relics  in  the  Cappella  del  SS. 


been  elevated  to  the  pontifical  chair, 
Cornacchini  was  commissioned  by  His 
Holiness  for  his  beautiful  chapel  recently 
erected  in  St.  John  Lateran  to  sculpture 
a  panel  in  low  relief  above  the  high  altar, 
measuring  eleven  by  fourteen  palms,* 
"S.  Andrea  Corsini  liberating  the  City  of 
Florence,"  as  well  as  the  statue  of  "Pru- 
dence" at  the  left,  executed  with  great  skill, 
penetration,  care  in  costume  and  harmony 
and  pattern  of  folds.13  Cornacchini  also 
demonstrated  his  ability  in  the  colossal 
statue  seventeen  palms  tall  representing 
the  seated  figure  of  Clement  XII  in  the 
act  of  bestowing  benediction,  placed  be- 
neath the  new  portico  of  the  basilica  of 
the  Lateran.14  Before  these  works  were 
exposed  to  the  public  he  had  completed  a 
bas-relief  measuring  twenty-two  Roman 
palms  in  height,  representing  the  "Birth 

Corporale  in  the  cathedral  at  Orvieto.  L.  Fumi,  // 
Duomo  di  Orvieto  e  i  suoi  reslauri,  Rome,  1891,  p.  319. 

12  Neither  the  statuette  of  "Judith"  nor  the  other 
statuettes  mentioned  in  the  series  exist  in  the  Florentine 
collection. 

*  One  Roman  palm  is  equal  to  .224  meter. 

13  Cornacchini's  statue  of  "Prudence"  (illustrated  in 
last  issue,  Fig.  3)  remains  in  the  original  place  above 
the  sarcophagus  of  the  Florentine  Cardinal  Pietro 
Corsini  (d.  1405),  one  of  the  series  of  four  Cardinal 
Virtues  executed  for  the  Corsini  Chapel  between  1732 
and  1734.  See  Fig.  4  and  Fig.  5.  Of  the  other  Virtues, 
Giuseppe  Rusconi  made  the  figure  of  "Fortitude," 
Giuseppe  Lironi  that  of  "Justice,"  and  Filippo  della 
Valle  that  of  "Temperance." 

Besides  the  "Prudence,"  two  angels  on  the  sarcopha- 
gus, and  the  relief  mentioned  by  Gabburri,  2.75  meters 
high  and  3.50  meters  wide,  which  hangs  in  the  great 
lunette  on  the  altar  wall,  depicting  "S.  Andreas  Corsini 
Participating  in  the  Battle  of  Anghiari,"  Cornacchini 
executed  a  part  of  the  stucco  decoration  of  the  chapel, 
namely  the  four  pendentive  reliefs  with  symbolic 
representations  of  the  Gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  See 
A.  Valentini,  La  Patriarcale  Basilica  Lateranense,  Rome, 
1836,  II,  4  ff.,  with  many  illustrations. 

14  The  seated  figure  of  Pope  Clement  XII,  ordered 
in  1735,  was  placed  in  the  vestibule  of  S.  Giovanni  in 
Laterano  in  1737,  only  to  be  replaced  by  a  figure  of 
Constantine  the  following  year.  The  statue  was  pre- 
sented to  the  city  of  Ancona  in  April,  1738,  to  be  placed 
on  the  steps  which  lead  to  the  church  of  S.  Domenico. 
See  Hager,  op.  cit.,  p.  73  and  Plate  37. 


40 


Fig.  4.  Cornacchini,  Angel  at  the  right  of  the  Prudentia. 
Corsini  Chapel,  St.  John  Lateran,  Rome. 


Fig.  5.  Cornacchini,  Angel  at  left  of  the  Prudentia.  Corsini 
Chapel,  St.  John  Lateran,  Rome. 


41 


of  the  Virgin,"  15  ordered  by  his  Majesty 
Vittorio  Amedeo,  King  of  Sardinia  and 
Duke  of  Savoy,  who  himself  received  the 
artist  cordially  when  he  travelled  to  Turin 
to  deliver  the  work  and  to  put  it  in  place. 
Departing  from  Turin  laden  with  honor 


15  The  five-and-a-half  meter  high  relief — representing 
the  "Nativity,"  not  the  "Birth  of  the  Virgin" — placed 
on  the  second  altar  to  the  right  in  the  Superga  must 
have  been  commissioned  in  1727/28,  since  the  artist 
was  paid  for  the  completed  work  in  1730.  See  A.  Tel- 
luccini,  La  Real  Chiesa  di  Soperga,  Turin,  1912,  p.  81. 

16  The  commission  for  the  relief  was  given  in  Novem- 
ber, 1730,  under  Vittorio  Amedeo  II  (died  October  31, 
1732),  and  seems  to  have  been  completed  under  Carlo 
Emanuel  III  in  1733/34.  Concerning  the  fate,  destruc- 
tion and  final  situation  of  this  work,  see  the  author's 
article  on  Cornacchini  in  the  last  issue  of  this  journal 
(Vol.  I,  No.  415),  pp.  21-22. 

17  The  statue  of  the  saint,  standing  on  the  left  bridge- 
head, assumed  to  have  been  executed  in  the  mid- 
1730's,  was  according  to  Roman  tradition  not  donated 
by  Cardinal  Albani,  but  by  the  Spanish  Cardinal 
Alvaro  Cienfuegos,  Archbishop  of  Monreale.  However, 
we  may  trust  Gabburri's  information  that  the  work  was 
commissioned  by  Cardinal  Alessandro  Albani,  who 
was  not  only  famous  as  a  patron  of  the  arts  but  also 
as  a  numismatist  and  collector  of  antiques,  and  who 
held  the  papal  appointment  as  Prefect  of  the  Con- 
gregazione  delle  Acque  in  addition  to  other  high  papal 
assignments. 

18  The  "St.  Elias"  was  erected  in  1727,  the  third  in 
a  series  of  great  statues  of  Founders  of  the  Orders 
carried  on  throughout  the  entire  eighteenth  century, 
following  Pietro  Stefano  Monnot's  figure  of  "St. 
Dominic"  (1709)  and  Carol  Monaldi's  "St.  Francis" 
(1725),  the  Cornacchini  figure  being  placed  in  the 
right  front  niche  of  the  Tribune  of  St.  Peter's. 

18  From  his  last  years — Cornacchini  is  said  to  have 
died  in  1740  in  Rome — we  know  of  four  colossal  stucco 
figures  of  churchmen,  which  were  placed  in  the  apse 
of  the  rejuvenated  church  of  S.  Agostino  in  Aquila.  See 
M.  Oddo  Bonafede,  Guida  della  Citta  di  Aquila,  Aquila, 
1888,  p.  144. 

20  Giampietro  Zanotti,  Storia  dell  ' Accademia  Clementina 
di  Bologna  (4  books  in  2  vols.),  Bologna,  1739. 

21  Edward  Wright,  Some  Observations  Made  in  Travelling 
through  France  and  Italy  in  the  Years  1720,  1721  and  1722, 
2  vols.,  London,  1730. 


and  gifts,  he  returned  to  Rome,  where 
another  bas-relief  of  a  "Pieta"  was 16 
ordered  by  Carlo  Emanuel,  successor  to 
the  throne  of  Vittorio  Amedeo,  the  work 
to  serve  as  pendant  to  that  already  exe- 
cuted for  the  marvelous  church  of  the 
Superga.  For  his  Eminence  Cardinal  Albani 
he  sculptured  a  gigantic  statue  of  "St. 
John  Nepomuk,"  placed  on  the  bridge  of 
the  Molle17  and  for  the  Carmelite  Order 
he  executed  a  statue  of  St.  Elias,  placed  in 
St.  Peter's  at  Rome.18  This  great  artist 
lives  in  Rome  today  in  1738, 19  and  it  is 
hoped  that  there  will  continue  to  be  ever 
greater  works  from  his  chisel.  He  was 
admitted  as  academician  to  the  Florentine 
Academy  of  St.  Luke,  as  well  as  ascribed 
as  honorary  member  of  the  Accademia 
Clementina  at  Bologna.  He  is  mentioned 
in  Giampiero  Zannotti's  Storia  deW  Ac- 
cademia (Bk.  I,  Chap.  7,  p.  57  and  Bk.  IV, 
p.  329). 20  Edward  Wright  mentions  Cor- 
nacchini's  statue  of  Charlemagne  in  his 
Voyages  (Bk.  I,  p.  206).  21 


Dr.  Keutner  is  an  outstanding  student  of 
Baroque  sculpture  who  is  connected  with  the 
Kunsthistorisches  Institut  in  Florence.  His  "Crit- 
ical Remarks  on  the  Work  of  Agostino  Cor- 
nacchini" appeared  in  the  last  issue  of  this 
journal  (Vol.  I,  No.  4-5,  Winter  1957 -Spring 
1958).  Thanks  are  due  to  Minerva  Pinnell,  who 
translated  the  Vita  and  notes,  and  to  Edith 
London,  translator  of  Dr.  Keutner' s  first  article, 
whose  name  was  unintentionally  omitted. 


42 


REGISTRAR'S  REPORT  OF  NEW  ACQUISITIONS 
March  5  to  August  6,  1958 


American  Paintings 

Enrique  Montenegro  (born  Peru,  1917), 
"Interior  With  Figures."  Anonymous  gift 
(G.57.34.12).  Oil  and  charcoal  on  paper, 
h:2234  w:\6Vs  inches.  Exhib.:  North 
Carolina  Museum  of  Art,  Raleigh,  1957 
(cat.  19). 

Franz  Kline  (born  1910),  "Orange  Out- 
line." Lent*  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  S.  J.  Levin, 
St.  Louis  (L.58.8.8).  Oil  on  board,  mounted 
on  canvas,  h:38,  w:40  inches.  Signed  and 
dated  1955  on  reverse.  Exhib.:  "Panel's 
Choice,"  North  Carolina  Museum  of  Art, 
Raleigh,  1957  (cat.  9). 

European  Paintings 

Alexis  Jawlensky  (Russian,  1864-1941), 
"Still  Life."  Gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  S.  J. 
j  Levin,  St.  Louis  (G.58.8.3).  Oil  on  board, 
h.:\8%,  w:1434  inches.  Signed. 

Berthe    Morisot    (French,  1841-1895), 
"Old  Mill  in  the  Forest  of  Compiegne." 
|  Lent*  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  S.  J.  Levin,  St. 
i  Louis  (L.58.8.5).  Canvas,  h:20^,  w:24% 
inches.  Signed.  Coll.:  Ronart. 

Antonio  Music  (Italian,  born  1909), 
I  "Dalmatian  Motif."  Lent*  by  Mr.  and 
I  Mrs.  S.  J.  Levin,  St.  Louis  (L.58.8.6). 

Canvas,  h:23^4,  w:32  inches.  Signed  and 
\\  dated  1952. 

Maurice  Utrillo  (French,  1883-1955), 
j  "Church  of  Leynes."  Lent*  by  Mr.  and 
1  Mrs.  S.  J.  Levin,  St.  Louis  (L.58.8.7). 
I  Canvas,  h:20,  w:24  inches.  Signed. 

Rembrandt   van    Rijn    (Dutch,  1606- 
1669),  "Maria  van  Uylenburg."  Lent*  by 

*  Only  long-term  loans  are  listed. 


Mr.  and  Mrs.  Alex  B.  Andrews,  Raleigh 
(L. 58. 15.1).  Panel,  h:21,  w:16  inches. 
Coll.:  Major  Kay. 

Michele  Marieschi  (Italian,  1796-1743), 
"Castello  Near  Venice."  Anonymous  gift 
(G.58.16.1).  Canvas,  h:21,  w:2834  inches. 

Eugene  Boudin  (French,  1824-1898), 
"Beach  Scene  in  Normandy."  Anonymous 
loan*  (L.58.17.1).  Canvas,  h:10;'s.  w:1634 
inches.  Signed  and  dated  1884. 

Lucas  Cranach  (German,  1472-1553), 
"The  Mass  of  St.  Gregory."  Anonymous 
loan*  (L.58.17.2).  Panel,  h:34,  w:24^ 
inches. 

Sculpture 

Benedetto  Briosco  (Italian,  1483-1506), 
Relief  Representing  a  Mythological  Sub- 
ject. Museum  Purchase  Fund  (58.4.7). 
Marble,  h:13,  w:47  inches. 

Warrior,  companion  piece  to  the  follow- 
ing work.  Mexico  (Nayarit),  ca.  300  A.D. 
Gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  S.  J.  Levin,  St.  Louis 
(G. 58. 8.1).  Terra  cotta,  height:  21  inches. 

Wife  of  Warrior.  Mexico  (Nayarit),  ca. 
300  A.D.  Gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  S.  J.  Levin, 
St.  Louis  (G.58.8.2).  Terra  cotta,  height: 
21  inches. 

Elephant.  Italy  (Padua),  ca.  1500.  Gift 
of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Arthur  L.  Erlanger,  New 
York  (G.58.10.1).  Bronze,  height:  4J2 
inches,  length:  8  inches. 

Bust  of  Henry  IV.  Italy,  16th  century. 
Gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Arthur  L.  Erlanger, 
New  York  (G. 58. 10.2).  Bronze,  height: 
3M  inches;  with  base,  6  inches. 

Joseph  Nollekens  (English,  1737-1823), 
Bust  of  William  Pitt.  Gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Ralph  W.  Gardner,  Shelby  (G.58.11.1). 


43 


I 


Marble,  height:  27*4  inches  (with  base). 

Thomas  Ball  (American,  1819-1911), 
"Daniel  Webster."  Gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Robert  Lee  Humber,  Greenville  (G.58.- 
13.1).  Bronze,  height:  30  inches.  Signed 
and  dated  1853. 

Paul  Wayland  Bartlett  (American,  1865- 
1925),  "Mask."  Gift  of  Mrs.  Armistead 
Peter  III,  Washington,  D.  C.  (G.58.18.1). 
Bronze,  height:  12%  inches. 

Paul  Wayland  Bartlett  (American,  1865- 
1925),  Four  Seated  Male  Figures.  Gift  of 
Mrs.  Armistead  Peter  III,  Washington, 
D.  C.  (G. 58. 18. 2-. 5).  Bronze,  heights: 
33^2  to  4  inches. 

Decorative  Arts  and  Others 

Louis  XVI  Settee.  France,  18th  century. 
Gift  (former  loan)  of  Mr.  Otto  Feistmann, 
Asheville  (GL.56.3.5).  Beauvais  tapestry 
seat  designed  by  Oudry,  back  designed  by 
Huet;  height:  413^  inches. 

Two  Louis  XVI  Chairs.  France,  18th 
century.  Gift  (former  loan)  of  Mr.  Otto 
Feistmann,  Asheville  (GL.56.3.6-.7).  Beau- 
vais tapestry  seats  designed  by  Oudry, 
backs  designed  by  Huet;  heights:  39  inches. 

Four  Embroideries.  Italy  (Florence?), 
16th  to  17th  century.  Gift  of  Mr.  Ralph  H. 
Wark,  Hendersonville  (G.58.9.1-.4).  Linen, 


lengths:  11 Y2  to  21 widths:  3>£  to  iy2 
inches. 

Embroidery.  Italy  (Venice  or  North 
Italy),  16th  to  17th  century.  Gift  of  Mr. 
Ralph  H.  Wark,  Hendersonville  (G.58.9.5). 
Linen,  length:  11,  width:  5  inches. 

Brocade.  Japan,  18th  century.  Anony- 
mous gift  (G.58.12.1).  Silk,  length:  64%, 
width:  66  inches. 

Group  of  sixteen  sculptured  plaques. 
Egypt  (Coptic),  4th  to  6th  century  A.D. 
Gift  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Fred  Olsen,  Guilford, 
Connecticut  (G.58.14.1-.16).  Bone. 

Graphics 

Ernst  Ludwig  Kirchner  (German,  1880- 
1938),  "Girl  in  Music  Hall."  Museum 
Purchase  Fund  (58.4.8).  Etching,  h:8K, 
w:6%  inches.  Signed.  Exhib.:  "E.  L. 
Kirchner,  German  Expressionist,"  North 
Carolina  Museum  of  Art,  Raleigh,  1958 
(cat.  72). 

Group  of  eight  drawings  of  the  17th  and 
18th  centuries.  Museum  Purchase  Fund 
(58.4.9-.16). 

James  Ensor  (Belgian,  1860-1949),  "Por- 
trait of  the  Artist's  Mother."  Gift  of  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  S.  J.  Levin,  St.  Louis  (G.58.8.4). 
Drawing,  pencil  on  paper,  h-.S}^,  w:634 
inches.  Signed. 


THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  MUSUEM  OF  ART 


Officers  and  Board  of  Directors  of  the  State  Art  Society 

Governor  Luther  H.  Hodges  Honorary  President 

Mr.  Robert  Lee  Humber  President 

Mr.  Edwin  Gill  Vice-President 

Mrs.  James  H.  Cordon  Treasurer 

Vice-Presidents  at  Large  Elected 

Mrs.  Frank  Taylor  Dr.  Clarence  Poe 

Mrs.  Jacques  Busbee  Mrs.  Isabelle  Henderson 

Mr.  John  V.  Allcott  Dr.  Clemens  Sommer 

Mr.  Egbert  L.  Davis,  Jr. 

Appointed  by  the  Governor  Mr.  Henry  L.  Bridges 

Dr.  Sylvester  Green  Mr.  Gregory  Ivy 

Mrs.  Charles  Cannon  Mrs.  J.  H.  B.  Moore 

Mr.  Ralph  C.  Price  Mr.  Edwin  Gill 

Ex  Officio 

Hon.  Luther  H.  Hodges  Governor  of  North  Carolina 

Dr.  Charles  M.  Carroll  State  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction 

Hon.  Malcolm  B.  Seawell  Attorney  General 

Mrs.  R.  S.  Bigham,  Jr  Art  Chairman,  North  Carolina  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs 

Staff  of  the  Museum 

W.  R.  Valentiner  Director 

James  B.  Byrnes  Associate  Director 

Ben  F.  Williams  Curator 

Charles  W.  Stanford,  Jr  Curator  of  Education 

May  Davis  Hill  Librarian,  Registrar,  and  Curator  of  Prints 

William  T.  Beckwith  Budget  Officer 

Peggy  Jo  Kirby  Secretary  to  Director 

Peggy  Noblin  Secretary 

Edith  Johnson  Sales  Desk 

William  A.  Weathersby  Library  Assistant 

Betty  Debnam  Public  Informatiou 

Frank  L.  Manly  Preparator 

Branton  L.  Olive  Packer  and  Shipper 

James  R.  Hampton  Head  Museum  Guard 

Information 

Hours:  Open  Tuesdays  through  Saturdays  10-5;  Sundays  2-6;  Closed  Mondays  and 
legal  holidays. 

Telephone:    TE  4-3611,  Ext.  7569. 

Tours:    May  be  scheduled  upon  advance  written  request. 

Membership  in  the  North  Carolina  State  Art  Society:  Annual  $5.00;  Contributor 
$10.00;  Sustaining  $25.00;  Patron  $50.00;  Life  $100.00;  Donor  $500.00;  Benefactor 
$1,000.00. 

All  gifts  to  the  Museum,  whether  of  objects  or  money,  are  tax  deductible.  Names  of 
donors  are  permanently  attached  to  objects  purchased  with  donated  funds. 


The  North  Carolina  Museum  of  Art 

RALEIGH,  NORTH  CAROLINA 


NON-PROFIT  ORG. 
U.  S.  POSTAGE 


PAID 


RALEIGH,  N.  C. 
Permit  No.  453 


Cover:  Fabritius,  Carel  (Dutch,  ca.  1624-1654),  St.  Matthew  Writing  the  Gospel.  Oil  on 
canvas,  42  x  4234  inches.  W.  R.  Valentiner  Memorial  Purchase  Fund. 


The  North  Carolina  Museum  of  Art  Bulletin  is  published  quarterly.  Copyright,  1957,  by  the  North  Carolina  Museum 
of  Art,  107  East  Morgan  Street,  Raleigh,  North  Carolina.  Subscriptions  $2.00  a  year.  Single  copies  $.50.  Sent  free 
to  North  Carolina  State  Art  Society  members.  Four  weeks'  notice  required  for  change  of  address. 


THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  MUSEUM  OF  ART 
BULLETIN 


SUPPLEMENT  TO  THE  W.  R.  VALENTINER  MEMORIAL  EXHIBITION 

CONTENTS 

Foreword   2 

Two  Busts  by  Cellini   11 

By  W.  R.  Valentiner 

Tributes  to  W.  R.  Valentiner  Delivered  at  Memorial  Luncheon,  April  6,  1959 

Contributors:    Luther  H.  Hodges   15 

Edwin  Gill   16 

Edgar  P.  Richardson   18 

Sherman  E.  Lee   20 

Perry  T.  Rathbone   22 

Robert  Lee  Humber   25 

A  Selection  of  Articles  Written  in  Memory  of  W.  R.  Valentiner 

Contributors:    Colin  Agnew   26 

Hans  Hess   29 

Eduard  Plietzsch   30 

Friedrich  Winkler   33 

Fritz  W.  Neugass   36 

Lionello  Venturi   39 

Germain  Seligman   40 

Checklist  of  Gifts  Presented  to  the  North  Carolina  Museum  of  Art  in  Memory  of 

i  w.  R.  Valentiner   43 

Bppendix   49 


FOREWORD 


In  the  Spring  of  1958,  Dr.  Valentiner 
left  Raleigh  to  travel  to  Europe  where  he 
was  to  gather  material  to  revise  his  earlier 
Rembrandt  studies  for  the  projected  re- 
issue of  the  Klassiker  der  Kunst  series.  He 
made  the  journey  against  the  advice  of  his 
physician  and  friends,  but,  as  always,  after 
thanking  all  for  their  kindness  and  feel- 
ing deeply  touched  at  their  concern  for 
his  personal  comfort,  he  went  ahead  with 
his  plans,  relying  on  fate.  His  tour,  which 
was  interrupted  by  enforced  rests  along  the 
way,  was  to  be  the  last  of  what  had  become 
an  annual  pilgrimage  to  European  art 
centers  where  he  would  renew  his  acquaint- 
ance with  the  old  and  delight  in  the  dis- 
covery of  the  new.  In  many  respects,  this 
final  trip  was  a  compressed  symbol  of  his 
whole  career,  highlighted  as  it  was  by 
discoveries,  acquisitions,  and  the  study  of 
a  new  field  of  art,  characteristic  of  his 
life's  work  and  interest. 

On  his  first  stop  in  Paris,  Dr.  Valentiner 
made  arrangements  to  have  special  photo- 
graphs taken  of  the  work  of  French  Renais- 
sance sculptors,  which  artists  had  re- 
cently attracted  his  interest.  While  there, 
he  penned  a  short  article  on  two  bronze 
busts  in  the  Louvre  which  has  been  selected 
for  printing  here  since  it  is  one  of  his  last 
writings.  As  usual,  while  in  Paris,  he  started 
filling  his  briefcase  with  paperback  volumes 
by  contemporary  French  writers  and  poets, 
as  he  was  to  do  later  in  Germany  and 
Britain.  These  kept  company  together  with 
an  American  reprint  of  Goodbye,  Mr.  Chips 
which  he  had  picked  up  along  the  way. 


1  We  are  pleased  to  report  that  this  painting  has  now 
been  presented  as  a  partial  gift  to  the  Museum. 


Moving  on  to  England,  he  discovered  a 
painting  in  the  London  art  market  which 
had  been  known  to  him  before  only  through 
photographs.  After  studying  the  original, 
he  pronounced  it  a  portrait  of  Maria  van 
Uylenburg,  painted  about  1633  by  Rem- 
brandt.1 A  few  days  later,  he  wrote  the 
Museum  that  he  had  just  seen  a  marvelous 
canvas  by  Carel  Fabritius,  "St.  Matthew 
Writing  the  Gospel."  Urging  that  every 
effort  be  made  to  acquire  this  work,  he 
wrote,  "If  we  acquire  the  present  painting 
[these  masters  around  Rembrandt]  will  be 
better  represented  in  Raleigh  than  any- 
where else  in  U.S.A.,  and  in  Europe 
[surpassed]  only  in  the  Rijksmuseum  at 
Amsterdam." 

Just  as  he  had  always  done  since  his 
student  days,  Dr.  Valentiner  sought  out 
the  work  of  modern  artists.  This  time,  he 
purchased  for  himself  a  handsome  con- 
struction by  Barbara  Hepworth  titled 
"Curlew,"  a  study  in  sheet  copper  and  wire 
for  a  larger  work. 

From  England,  Dr.  Valentiner  traveled 
to  Germany  where  he  first  stopped  to  visit 
his  brother  Siegfried  at  Bad  Oeynhausen. 
A  few  days  later,  in  Munich,  he  suffered 
an  attack  which  forced  him  to  rest  at  a 
sanatorium  for  six  weeks.  Upon  his  release, 
he  decided  to  cancel  the  rest  of  his  trip 
and  start  the  return  to  America.  He  man- 
aged to  get  as  far  as  Bremen,  where  his 
brother  Theodor  lives  and  where  he  suf- 
fered another  setback.  After  two  weeks,  he 
signed  a  release  and  sailed  for  his  beloved 
New  York.  A  short  time  later,  he  passed 
away  in  the  apartment  of  his  friend,  the 
playwright  Clifford  Odets,  just  around 
the  corner  from  the  Metropolitan  Museum, 


2 


where  his  career  had  begun  a  half-century 
earlier. 

Within  a  few  weeks  of  his  passing,  the 
Governor  and  Council  of  State  of  North 
Carolina  voted  a  special  appropriation  to 
assemble  a  memorial  exhibition  to  honor  his 
service  to  this  State  and  its  people.  Through 
the  cooperation  of  various  museum  directors 
and  private  collectors  it  was  possible,  in 
the  short  space  of  eight  months,  to  open  the 
Masterpieces  of  Art  Exhibition  which  con- 
tained some  two  hundred  works  of  art,  of 
which  almost  half  were  items  Dr.  Valen- 
tiner  had  purchased  for  museums  where  he 
served  as  director.  To  these  were  added 
paintings  and  sculpture  by  masters  whose 
works  were  the  subject  of  scholarly  exhibi- 
tions he  had  arranged,  as  well  as  a  selection 
of  works  by  old  and  modern  masters  from 
the  personal  collection,  which  he  had  ac- 
quired during  his  lifetime. 

During  the  six  weeks  that  the  memorial 
show  was  on  view,  all  previous  attendance 
records  were  broken  by  the  more  than 
twenty-eight  thousand  visitors.  The  exhibi- 
tion was  accompanied  by  an  illustrated 
catalogue,  which,  in  addition  to  listing  the 
loans,  included  a  group  of  works  of  art 
presented  to  the  Museum  as  gifts  in  memory 
of  Dr.  Valentiner.  Other  gifts  were  re- 
ceived after  the  catalogue  went  to  press, 
and  these  are  reproduced  here  for  the  first 
time,  together  with  an  up-to-date  checklist 
of  all  the  memorial  gifts.  Our  Museum  is 
pleased  to  announce  that  with  the  help  of 
funds  donated  in  memory  of  Dr.  Valentiner 
the  painting  by  Carel  Fabritius  has  been 
purchased  in  his  name.  With  its  acquisition, 
we  draw  to  a  close  the  formal  program  of 
the  Valentiner  Memorial  which  began 
shortly  after  his  death  on  September  6, 


1958  and  took  more  than  a  year  to  con- 
clude. 

In  addition  to  funds  and  works  of  art, 
many  individuals  donated  articles  or  trib- 
utes composed  in  his  memory.  To  have 
attempted  to  publish  them  all  would  have 
required  a  volume,  so  we  have  narrowed 
our  selection  to  include  reminiscences 
written  by  Dr.  Valentiner's  friends  and 
colleagues  for  various  art  publications  in 
Europe.  These  are  reprinted  in  the  belief 
that  they  may  otherwise  escape  notice  by 
all  but  the  specialist  in  art.  These  articles 
reflect  the  respect  and  interest  that  was 
accorded  the  work  and  career  of  Dr. 
Valentiner,  particularly  in  Europe  where 
he  was  greatly  admired  for  combining  the 
European  tradition  of  scholarship  with  the 
dynamic  program  of  public  education, 
which  he  helped  create  as  the  hallmark  of 
American  museums. 

To  record  the  devotion  and  admiration 
of  his  friends  in  this  country,  we  have 
chosen  to  print  a  group  of  speeches  de- 
livered at  a  memorial  luncheon  held  as  part 
of  the  exhibition  preview.  Since  most  of 
Dr.  Valentiner's  American  museum  career 
was  spent  in  the  service  of  museums  sup- 
ported by  public  funds,  it  is  appropriate  to 
open  the  tributes  with  the  speech  delivered 
by  Governor  Luther  H.  Hodges  who  spoke 
on  behalf  of  the  people  of  North  Carolina. 
State  Treasurer  Edwin  Gill  spoke  not  only 
as  an  official  of  the  State  and  a  member  of 
the  Board  of  the  Art  Society,  but  also  on 
behalf  of  a  warm,  personal  friendship  that 
he  and  Dr.  Valentiner  had  formed  during 
the  early  days  of  this  Museum.  Robert 
Lee  Humber,  President  of  the  State  Art 
Society,  acted  as  chairman  of  the  luncheon 
program,  in  which  capacity  he  paid  tribute 


3 


to  Dr.  Valentiner's  contribution  to  the 
establishment  of  the  Museum  and  to  his 
service  as  its  first  director.  Dr.  Humber's 
"In  Memoriam,"  which  appeared  in  this 
Bulletin,  Summer  1958,  has  been  reprinted 
here.  To  the  group  of  reprinted  articles  and 
speeches,  we  have  added  a  tribute  written 
by  Germain  Seligman,  New  York  City  art 
dealer  and  longtime  friend  of  the  late  Dr. 
Valentiner.  It  has  been  selected  to  symbolize 
the  many  friendships  Dr.  Valentiner  formed 
with  those  in  the  art  market,  a  number  of 
which  included  a  sharing  of  scholarly 
interests. 

The  speeches  of  Edgar  P.  Richardson, 
Sherman  E.  Lee,  and  Perry  T.  Rathbone, 
which  were  delivered  at  the  luncheon,  are 
tributes  paid  by  distinguished  museum 
directors  who  served  their  apprenticeship 
under  Dr.  Valentiner,  and,  who  through 
that  association,  became  his  lifelong  friends. 
The  good  Doctor  took  great  pride  in  the 
achievement  and  success  of  each  of  these 
men,  for  he  believed  that  some  of  his 
philosophy  would  continue  to  find  ex- 
pression through  their  work. 

In  his  luncheon  speech,  Perry  Rathbone 
paid  tribute  to  Dr.  Valentiner's  extra- 
ordinary ability  to  "start  over  again"  in  a 
new  environment,  to  break  ground  and  to 
build  a  new  museum.  The  opportunity  to 
do  so  presented  itself  on  five  separate 
occasions  so  that  to  trace  his  whole  career, 
we  must  cross  America  twice  from  New 
York  to  California  and  back  to  Raleigh 
with  a  stop  at  Detroit,  where  he  spent  the 
major  part  of  his  career. 

Dr.  Valentiner's  first  appointment  in 
America  was  as  Curator  of  Decorative 
Arts  at  the  Metropolitan  Museum  between 
1908  and  1914.  His  position  there  en- 
compassed the  art  of  the  Orient  and  the 


Near  East,  and  with  the  exception  of 
painting,  all  of  European  Art,  since  the 
beginning  of  Christianity.  Therefore,  his 
domain  included  everything  except  the 
fields  of  painting  and  archaeology.  Despite 
the  word  "decorative"  in  his  title,  he  had 
very  little  interest  in  objects  of  skill  and 
craft;  instead,  he  focused  his  attention  on 
expressive  and  ritual  works  which  embody 
mankind's  beliefs  or  imaginative  and  vision- 
ary aspirations. 

During  the  six  years  he  served  at  the 
Metropolitan,  he  built  up  a  collection  of 
masterpieces  of  Gothic  and  Renaissance 
sculpture,  Near  and  Far  Eastern  art,  as 
well  as  a  distinguished  collection  of  early 
Christian  art.  The  division  of  decorative 
arts,  which  he  originated,  has  since  evolved 
into  a  group  of  separate  departments,  each 
headed  by  an  outstanding  specialist.  Within 
a  year  after  his  arrival,  he  organized  and 
presented  the  first  great  loan  exhibition  of 
old  masters  ever  to  be  held  in  an  American 
museum  (the  Hudson-Fulton  Exhibition 
held  at  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art 
in  1909).  Included  in  it  were  most  of  the 
masterpieces  of  Dutch  seventeenth  century 
art  owned  by  American  collectors  at  that 
time.  This  was  the  first  of  some  fifty  such 
special  exhibitions  complete  with  cata- 
logue, which  he  arranged  throughout  his 
lifetime. 

As  a  German  national,  he  served  his 
homeland  during  World  War  I.  In  1921,  he 
returned  to  the  United  States,  to  be  ap- 
pointed first  Director  of  the  Detroit  Institute 
of  Arts.  There,  Dr.  Valentiner's  first  task 
was  to  work  with  the  architect  designing 
the  new  museum  which  he  was  to  create. 
In  the  plans,  he  incorporated  provisions 
for  the  arrangement  of  the  museum's  col- 
lection in  period-room  settings — a  practice 


which  he  pioneered.  Painting,  sculpture, 
and  the  decorative  arts  of  a  given  period 
were  integrated  in  separate  galleries  to 
demonstrate  the  unifying  qualities  that 
make  up  the  style  or  personality  of  an 
epoch. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  first 
collection  of  paintings  he  bought  for  Detroit 
contained  works  by  late  nineteenth  and 
twentieth  century  French  masters,  and  in 
the  group  was  the  first  Matisse  to  be  pur- 
chased by  an  American  museum.  At  the 
same  time,  he  acquired  other  works  by 
such  masters  as  Degas,  Monet,  Van  Gogh, 
and  others,  for  about  the  same  amount 
that  one  would  pay  for  the  work  of  a 
living  American  artist  today. 

His  museum  was,  if  not  the  first,  one  of 
the  earliest  institutions  to  offer  a  schedule 
of  chamber  music  concerts  as  part  of  its 
general  cultural  program.  The  work  of 
many  modern  composers  had  their  first 
audience  in  the  region  at  these  recitals  at 
the  Institute.  Hindemith  once  performed 
some  of  his  own  compositions  during  his 
stay  in  Detroit.  Among  other  early  achieve- 
ments, Dr.  Valentiner  purchased  for  De- 
troit, at  a  time  when  in  America  such  items 
were  considered  solely  of  ethnographic  im- 
portance, the  work  of  so-called  primitive 
cultures — the  African  Negro  and  the 
Indians  of  Mexico  and  South  America. 

In  1945,  at  age  sixty-five,  he  was  obliged 
by  law  to  give  up  his  position  at  Detroit. 
After  a  short  retirement  in  New  York,  he 
became  restless  and  accepted  the  position 
as  Director-Consultant  at  the  Los  Angeles 
County  Museum.  That  institution  is  one 
of  the  few  museums  remaining  which  com- 
bine the  separate  disciplines  of  history, 
science  and  art  under  one  roof.  At  first,  Dr. 
Valentiner  hoped  that  this  strange  union 


could  be  turned  to  advantage.  Because  his 
own  background  was  steeped  in  science  and 
history,  he  believed  that  somehow  he  might 
be  able  to  persuade  the  other  divisions  to 
overhaul  their  departments  with  emphasis 
on  the  creative  and  aesthetic  aspects  of 
life  instead  of  the  paralyzed-in-action 
corpses  which  are  used  in  habitat  groups 
and  specimen  cases.  Recalling  the  success 
of  the  mural  which  he  had  commissioned 
Diego  Rivera  to  paint  for  the  main  hall  of 
Detroit  Institute,  he  tried  without  success 
to  persuade  the  trustees  at  Los  Angeles 
to  let  him  engage  Morris  Graves  to  paint 
murals  in  the  main  foyer,  using  small 
creatures  of  nature. 

From  1946  until  1954,  Dr.  Valentiner 
built  the  Art  Division  of  the  Los  Angeles 
County  Museum  from  a  few  scattered 
galleries  containing  private  collections  into 
a  distinguished  museum  which  will  soon 
break  away  and  move  into  its  own  building. 
Of  all  the  work  in  building  that  collection, 
two  projects  gave  him  great  pleasure,  be- 
cause each  in  its  own  way  provided  the 
museum  with  collections  of  great  impor- 
tance and  quality.  The  first  was  the  acquisi- 
tion of  the  George  Gard  de  Sylva  collection 
of  modern  French  Impressionist  and  Post- 
Impressionist  painting  and  sculpture.  Mr. 
de  Sylva  had  previously  acquired  a  few  late 
nineteenth  century  paintings,  but  he  wanted 
to  round  out  his  holdings  into  a  collection 
to  present  to  the  Museum.  He  asked  Dr. 
Valentiner  to  travel  to  New  York  where 
together  they  purchased  the  balance  of  the 
collection.  Unfortunately,  all  of  the  works 
in  that  collection  had  not  been  presented 
to  the  County  Museum  before  Mr.  de 
Sylva's  death,  and  a  large  number  of  them 
were  used  to  settle  obligations  against  his 
estate.    Nevertheless,    the    paintings  and 


5 


sculpture  which  were  presented,  such  as 
the  Degas,  "Two  Sisters,"  the  Picasso, 
"The  Woman  With  the  Blue  Veil,"  and 
Rouault's  early  painting,  "Samson  Turning 
the  Millstone,"  are  some  of  the  Museum's 
greatest  masterpieces. 

The  second  great  project  was  the  selection 
and  acquisition  of  a  number  of  specialized 
collections  from  funds  contributed  by,  and 
the  vast  holdings  of  William  Randolph 
Hearst.  Among  these  gifts  the  collection  of 
Gothic  and  Renaissance  sculpture  would 
have  placed  the  Los  Angeles  County  Mu- 
seum in  the  front  rank  of  American 
museums.  In  1952,  at  age  72,  while  still  at 
the  County  Museum,  Dr.  Valentiner  was 
persuaded  to  devote  one-half  of  his  time  to 
converting  the  private  residence  of  J.  Paul 
Getty  into  use  as  a  public  museum.  This 
task  engaged  him  for  the  better  part  of  a 
year,  during  which  time  he  rearranged  the 
collection  and  designed  the  new  construc- 
tion, which  has  since  been  built.  By  1954, 
he  had  decided  to  retire  to  Italy  where  he 
planned  to  continue  his  studies  in  Italian 
sculpture,  and  to  prepare  his  diaries,  letters 
and  other  material  for  final  publication. 

Less  than  a  year  later  he  was  invited  to 
come  to  Raleigh  to  be  the  first  Director  of 
this  institution.  As  early  as  1952,  he  had 
made  a  study  of  the  paintings  which  were 
under  consideration  for  the  museum  by  the 
State  Art  Commission,  and  before  accept- 
ing the  position  as  Director,  he  was  again 
able  to  give  some  estimate  of  the  collection. 

Arriving  at  Raleigh  in  November  of 
1955,  he  set  about  working  with  the  archi- 
tect and  contractors,  making  the  necessary 
last  minute  changes  to  accommodate  the 
collection.  In  less  than  six  months,  he  had 
arranged  the  collection,  published  the 
catalogue,  and  opened  the  Museum  to  the 


public.  Some  three  weeks  following  the 
opening  of  the  Museum,  he  submitted  a 
plan,  suggesting  that  the  State  acquire  the 
two  buildings  to  the  East  of  the  Museum,  to 
be  renovated  and  related  to  the  present  build- 
ing, so  that  there  would  be  ample  space  and 
facilities  to  take  care  of  a  total  Museum.  His 
plan  was  quite  simple  and  of  the  highest 
practical  character.  It  envisioned  the  pres- 
ent Museum  continuing  to  feature  painting 
and  other  two  dimensional  materials;  sculp- 
ture and  three  dimensional  objects  would  be 
assigned  to  the  third  building  in  the  unit, 
with  the  central  structure  redesigned  and 
adapted  for  the  curatorial,  educational,  and 
administrative  responsibilities  of  the  Mu- 
seum. One  of  the  most  important  parts  of 
this  plan  was  the  reorientation  of  the 
entrance  and  facade  from  East  Morgan 
Street  to  New  Bern  Avenue,  a  180-degree 
turn,  so  that  the  vacant  spaces  at  the  rear 
could  be  converted  into  a  park-like  setting 
for  an  outdoor  sculpture  court  and  main 
entrance. 

We  are  pleased  to  announce  that  during 
the  last  General  Session  of  the  State 
Legislature,  an  appropriation  was  made 
which  will  permit  the  demolition  of  the 
building  adjacent  to  the  Museum,  and 
allow  for  the  construction  of  a  new  five  or 
six  story  building. 

During  the  three  years  that  he  lived  in 
Raleigh,  Dr.  Valentiner  accomplished  a 
great  deal  of  work.  Aside  from  his  daily 
Museum  routine,  he  saw  the  publication 
of  two  major  volumes  of  his  writing:  The 
Bamberg  Rider  in  1956,  and  Rembrandt  and 
Spinoza  the  following  year.  In  1956  he 
organized  an  exhibition  of  the  work  of 
Rembrandt  and  his  Pupils,  which  proved 
to  be  the  only  major  event  in  this  country, 
to    celebrate    the    350th    anniversary  of 


6 


Rembrandt's  birth.  The  following  year,  he 
assembled  the  first  museum  retrospective 
exhibition  devoted  to  the  work  of  the 
German  Expressionist,  E.  Ludwig  Kirchner, 
whose  work  he  first  introduced  in  Detroit 
in  1937. 

For  the  year  1958,  he  had  planned  to 
organize  an  exhibition  of  early  textiles 
and  tapestries  which  was  to  include  many 
loans  from  European  collections.  In  plan- 
ning for  this,  he  may  have  had  in  mind  the 
first  museum  exhibition  that  he  organized 
after  his  arrival  in  America,  that  of  "A 
Loan  Exhibition  of  Early  Oriental  Rugs" 
at  the  Metropolitan  Museum  in  1910. 

Those  who  knew  Dr.  Valentiner  are 
aware  that  he  had  very  little  interest  in 
personal  property,  other  than  his  tools  of 
scholarship,  the  books  in  his  library,  his 
study  collection  of  photographs;  and,  of 
course,  the  collection  of  modern  painting 
and  sculpture,  which  he  had  assembled 
during  his  lifetime. 

In  preparing  his  last  Will,  after  be- 
queathing his  Rembrandt  drawings  to  his 
daughter  and  recognizing  a  few  friends  with 
token  gifts,  he  assigned  the  remainder  of 
his  estate  to  the  Museums  of  Detroit, 
Cleveland,  and  North  Carolina.  He  desig- 
nated this  Museum  as  the  depository  for 
his  library  and  his  photographs,  as  well  as 
the  greater  part  of  his  art  collection.  In  a 
single  gesture,  the  first  two  sections  of  the 
gift  provide  the  base  for  a  center  of  special- 
ized study  in  seventeenth  century  art  of  the 
Lowlands,  with  unique  resources  on  Rem- 
brandt and  his  pupils  and  Hals  and  his 
followers.  Of  almost  equal  importance,  is 
the  extensive  material  on  Italian  sculpture 
from  the  eleventh  through  sixteenth  cen- 
turies. In  addition,  he  also  assigned  to  this 
institution  his  diaries,  letters  and  manu- 


scripts, which  provide  great  insight  into  the 
personalities  who  helped  shape  the  cultural 
life  of  the  twentieth  century  — the  poets, 
writers,  and  philosophers,  as  well  as  the 
collectors,  scholars,  and  artists. 

As  with  most  scholars,  he  left  a  number 
of  manuscripts,  which  for  one  reason  or 
another,  were  never  published.  These  range 
from  subjects  in  which  he  had  a  continuing 
interest,  such  as  seven  notebooks  on  Leo- 
nardo and  three  on  Verrocchio,  through 
to  the  beginning  of  a  volume  of  Pre- 
Columbian  Art  and  an  unfinished  article 
on  the  American  sculptor,  John  Quincy 
Adams  Ward.  The  treatise  on  the  "Mediae- 
val Character  of  Mayan  Art"  was  almost 
complete  before  the  outbreak  of  World 
War  II,  when  Dr.  Valentiner  apparently 
set  it  aside  because  he  could  not  rationalize 
the  greatness  of  Mayan  art  with  the  brutal 
savagery  of  its  ritualism,  certainly  not  in 
the  climate  of  an  impending  war  against 
human  cruelty.  On  the  other  hand,  "the 
park  sculpture"  of  J.  Q,.  A.  Ward  was  in 
writing  before  Dr.  Valentiner  left  on  his 
last  trip  to  Europe.  He  considered  Ward  to 
be  an  outstanding  artist,  corresponding  to 
the  painter  Winslow  Homer  in  style,  period 
and  quality.  Here  again,  he  had  turned 
his  attention  to  material  that  attracted  his 
notice  during  the  early  days  of  his 
career  at  the  Metropolitan.  At  that  time, 
he  was  not  in  favour  of  the  anecdotal  and 
historical  sculpture  which  he  found  scat- 
tered among  the  shrubbery  on  his  walks 
through  Central  Park.  However,  on  his 
return  from  one  of  his  New  York  trips  in 
1955  or  1956,  he  began  assembling  notes  on 
Ward,  whose  work  he  had  recently  dis- 
covered. A  short  time  later,  Dr.  Valentiner 
arrived  at  the  Museum  one  morning  in  a 
state   of  outrage,   ready   to  step   out  of 


7 


character  by  writing  a  letter  of  protest  to 
the  New  Ycrk  Times.  It  seems  that  he  had 
just  read  an  article  in  The  New  Yorker  con- 
cerning the  cleaning,  re-tooling,  and  re- 
patinating  of  St.  Gaudens  "General 
Sherman"  which  stands  at  the  entrance  to 
Central  Park.  He  was  sure  that  if  allowed 
to  continue,  the  Fark  Department  would 
sandblast  all  the  statues  until  "they  shine 
like  kitchen  pots."  He  could  not  under- 
stand why  there  had  been  little  or  no  com- 
plaint against  such  cleaning  in  an  art 
center  like  New  York.  However,  he  soon 
realized  that  most  of  the  damage  had 
already  been  done,  and  on  his  next  trip  to 
New  York,  he  arranged  for  black  and 
white,  and  colour  photographs  of  all  of 
Ward's  works,  in  case  the  cleaning  project 
was  resumed. 

On  the  flyleaf  of  the  Memorial  Catalogue 
we  printed  an  excerpt  from  the  preface 
of  Dr.  Valentiner's  autobiography,  which 
begins,  "there  is  substance  in  every  one  for 
two  autobiographies,  one  describing  the 
events  of  his  external  life,  particularly  the 
achievements  in  his  occupation;  the  other 
telling  of  his  inner  experiences,  among 
which  the  most  significant  are  related  to 
love." 

Frobably  no  other  single  activity  that  he 
engaged  in,  more  effectively  records  and 
documents  his  career  and  personality  than 
does  the  personal  art  collection  which  he 
assembled  during  his  lifetime.  Dr.  Valen- 
tiner  was  not  what  one  would  call  a  private 
collector,  that  is,  not  in  the  usual  sense  of 
the  word.  His  collection  is  a  highly  personal 
ledger  of  the  work  of  artists  to  whom  he 
devoted  much  of  his  career.  In  it  one  can 
find  a  visual  account  of  his  achievements, 
(as  well  as  his  frustrations)  and  evidence 
of  his  love.  The  items  by  early  masters 


in  the  collection  are  by  artists  upon 
whom  his  own  fame  rests  and  about  whose 
work  he  published  major  studies.  There 
are  also  drawings  of  Rembrandt  and  his 
school,  a  sketchbook  by  Jacques  Louis 
David,  a  marble  relief  by  Tino  da  Camaino, 
and  a  small  cire  perdu  bronze  St.  George  and 
the  Dragon,  which  he  described  as  "a  cast 
from  an  original  wax  by  Leonardo."  There 
is,  as  well,  a  handsome  marble  figure  of 
David,  which  he  must  have  acquired  about 
1913,  at  the  time  he  wrote  the  book  on 
Michelangelo,  to  whom  he  attributes  this 
piece.  Some  textiles  and  a  few  isolated 
drawings,  paintings,  and  sculpture  about 
complete  the  group. 

The  modern  section  more  closely  corre- 
sponds  to  what  Dr.  Valentiner  refers  to  as 
the  second  autobiography,  since  it  reflects 
his  love  for,  and  participation  in,  the  cre- 
ative spirit  of  his  own  day.  He  had  a  bound- 
less curiosity  about  the  undiscovered  and 
the  overlooked,  in  past  history,  as  well  as 
the  present.  In  consequence,  he  spent 
a  great  part  of  his  life  searching  out  and 
championing  the  work  of  living  artists, 
many  of  whom  have  since  been  recognized 
as  masters.  He  loved  to  visit  young  artists  in 
their  studios  where  he  could  see  their  total 
personality  revealed  in  un-selfconscious  sur- 
roundings. Here  he  could  study  various  ] 
stages  in  the  artist's  development,  and 
upon  such  occasions,  many  of  the  items  in 
his  collection  were  bought.  Others  he 
bought  from  exhibitions  which  he  arranged 
to  introduce  the  work  of  an  artist  to  the 
public.  Sometimes,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
Kirchner  Show  at  Detroit,  in  1937,  his  ; 
purchase  was  the  only  sale. 

In  the  last  years  of  his  life  it  gave  him 
great  satisfaction,  after  almost  forty  years 
of  devoted  work  and  effort  on  his  part,  to 


8 


see  proper  recognition  and  respect  accorded 
to  German  Expressionism  and  the  artists 
grouped  under  its  banner. 

If  one  were  to  attempt  to  summarize  Dr. 
Valentiner's  philosophy  of  art  through  the 
works  in  his  collection,  one  might  conclude 
that  he  had  little  interest  in  "finished" 
works;  that  is,  he  was  drawn  to  work  which 
evidenced  the  artist's  action  upon  the 
material,  which  expressed  a  passionate 
involvement  with  the  act  of  creation.  Most 
of  the  items  have  a  rougher,  more  spon- 
taneous character,  so  that  as  opposed  to 
being  in  themselves  a  culmination,  they 
are  fragments  of  a  greater  continuity. 


His  designation  of  this  Museum  as  chief 
benefactor  of  his  estate  was  the  material 
extension  of  this  conviction.  For  here,  his 
library,  his  study  materials,  and  his  writings 
will  form  the  nucleus  of  an  important  center 
of  research,  which  can  inspire  students  and 
assist  scholars  in  carrying  on  the  studies 
which  gave  him  so  much  satisfaction  in 
life.  His  collection  of  twentieth  century 
painting  and  sculpture  will  provide  this 
young  Museum  with  a  fully  developed 
department  for  modern  art,  as  well  as  an 
aesthetic  foundation  upon  which  to  con- 
struct a  great  institution  worthy  of  his  vision 
and  trust.  J.  B.  B. 


9 


I 


TWO  BUSTS  BY  CELLINI 


By  W.  R.  Valentiner 


EDITOR'S  NO  TE:  On  his  last  trip  abroad, 
the  late  W.  R.  Valentiner  was  gathering 
material  for  a  revised  edition  of  his  earlier 
studies  on  Rembrandt.  As  always,  when  working 
on  a  major  project,  he  had  one  or  more  smaller 
studies  going  on  at  the  same  time — a  sort  of  point, 
counterpoint — providing  him  with  diversion  so  that 
he  could  return  to  the  larger  task  with  renewed 
enthusiasm. 

The  following  article  is  an  example  of  this 
type  of  subordinate  study  and  reflects  Dr.  Valen- 
tiner's  continued  interest  in  Cellini,  about  whom 
he  had  published  several  articles.  At  various 
intervals  during  his  lifetime,  he  had  expressed 
the  hope  of  being  able  to  bring  together  material 
for  a  book  on  the  artist. 

Two  handwritten  versions  of  this  article 
(probably  the  last  of  such  studies)  were  found 
among  the  papers  he  had  with  him  in  Europe,  the 
more  complete  of  which  is  printed  here.  Certain  of 
Dr.  Valentiner 's  writings  have  appeared  post- 
humously in  various  art  journals,  and  others  are 
scheduled  for  the  future*  From  the  store  of 
unpublished  manuscripts  in  his  estate,  this  Mu- 
seum hopes  to  draw  material  for  inclusion  in 
subsequent  issues  of  the  "Bulletin.'" 

There  are  very  few  among  Cellini's 
works  mentioned  in  his  autobiography 
which  have  not  yet  been  identified;  most 

*  "Michelangelo's  Cupid  for  Jacopo  Gallo,"  Art 
Quarterly,  Vol.  21,  Autumn  1958,  pp.  257-264;  "Jacobus 
Vrel  or  Jacques  de  Ville,"  Bulletin  of  the  J.  Paul  Getty 
Museum,  Vol.  1959,  p.  12;  "Chronology  of  Donatello's 
Early  Works,"  Festschrift  Fur  Prof.  Friedrich  Winkler, 
Berlin,  1959;  "Rustici  in  France,"  Studies  in  the  History  of 
Art,  London,  1959,  pp.  205-217. 

1  Benvenuto  Cellini,  Autobiography  (tr.  Symonds),  New 
York,  Modern  Library,  p.  317. 

2  Autobiography,  p.  317. 

3  Autobiography,  p.  317. 


appealing  perhaps,  from  his  description, 
being  a  portrait  bust  of  "a  very  handsome 
girl,  whom  I  kept  for  my  own  pleasure.  I 
called  this  Fontainbleau,  after  the  place 
selected  by  the  King  for  his  particular 
delight."  1  Cellini  made  this  bust  in  Paris 
as  a  companion  piece  to  a  head  of  Julius 
Caesar,  which  he  modelled  "from  a  reduced 
copy  of  a  splendid  antique  portrait  I  had 
brought  with  me  from  Rome."  2 

These  two  heads  Cellini  cast  at  the  same 
time  as  the  large  model  of  the  Jupiter 
which  belonged  to  the  series  of  gods  ordered 
by  Francis  I,  intended  to  be  executed  in 
color  as  torch  bearers  for  the  diary  table. 
They  were  the  first  bronze  casts  Cellini 
made  in  France  with  the  help  of  French 
workmen  who,  however,  proved  to  be 
unsatisfactory.  Both  heads  came  out  of  the 
furnace  in  good  shape,  but  the  Jupiter  was 
ruined.  He  was  most  annoyed,  but  some- 
what consoled  with  the  good  cast  of  the 
two  heads. 

I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  the  two 
heads  are  preserved  to  us  in  the  Louvre, 
in  a  bust  of  a  Roman  Emperor  and  one 
of  a  very  handsome  French  girl. 

There  are,  however,  several  obstacles 
which  have  to  be  overcome  if  we  want  to 
accept  the  identification.  Cellini  speaks  of 
making  "on  my  own  account  a  head  of 
Julius  Caesar,  bust  and  armour,  much 
larger  than  the  life."  3  The  two  figures  are 
not  busts  in  the  sense  of  the  bronze  busts  of 
Cosimo  I  and  Biondo  Aldoviti  which  we 
know  thus  far  as  works  of  Cellini.  They  are 
really  only   bronze   heads   with   a  short 


13 


addition  of  the  breasts  in  marble,  this 
addition  being  much  smaller  than  in  the 
case  of  the  two  official  busts.  If  we  read 
the  text  of  Cellini  carefully,  we  will  find, 
however,  that  he  speaks  of  these  only  once 
as  busts;  that  is  in  the  previously  quoted 
sentence  (see  footnote  No.  3),  while  he 
speaks  of  them  four  times  in  the  following  of 
heads  only,  which  he  cast.  Except  in  the 
first  paragraphs,  we  hear  nothing  more  of 
the  additional  section  of  marble,  which 
was  not  essential. 

More  important  is  that  he  speaks  of  the 
heads  as  more  than  life  size,  while  they 
are  in  reality  just  the  size  of  life.  We  believe 
this  to  be  one  of  the  exaggerations  of  the 
artist,  which  can  be  proved  to  be  wrong 
if  we  follow  closely  his  description  of  the 
casting,  especially  when  it  comes  to  the 
exaggeration  of  one  of  the  translators  who 
speaks  of  their  being  of  colossal  size.  The 
plaster  casts  were,  of  course,  a  little  larger 
(one  inch)  than  the  shrunk  bronzes,  and 
this  seemed  to  have  appeared  to  the  artist 
as  if  they  were  much  larger  than  life  size. 

Regarding  the  casting,  Cellini  explains 
how  he  first  constructed  "an  admirable 
little  furnace  for  the  casting  of  the  bronze, 
got  all  things  ready,  and  baked  our 
moulds."  4  The  French  helpers  "put  their 
own  piece  into  the  furnace  while  I  placed 
my  two  heads  one  on  each  side  of  the 
Jupiter.  At  daybreak  they  began,  quite 

4  Autobiography,  p.  317. 
6  Autobiography,  p.  318. 


quietly,  to  break  into  the  pit  of  the  furnace. 
They  could  not  uncover  their  large  mould 
[of  the  Jupiter]  until  they  had  extracted 
my  two  heads."  5 

Now,  we  happen  to  know  the  size  of 
the  large  model  of  the  Jupiter,  for  these 
torch  figures  were  made,  as  Cellini  tells  us, 
exactly  the  height  of  the  King,  who  meas- 
ured just  under  six  feet.  As  there  were 
rather  high  bases  with  reliefs  for  each 
figure,  the  statues  were  about  two-thirds 
life  size,  or  about  the  size  of  the  two  statues 
from  the  Pourtale's  collection  in  the  Detroit 
Institute  of  Arts.  Considering  the  fact  that 
the  two  bronze  heads  were  placed  on  each 
side  of  the  statue,  of  which  one  arm  was 
raised  for  holding  the  torch,  it  seems  most 
improbable  that  they  were  of  "colossal" 
size,  especially  as  the  furnace  "was  little" 
as  Cellini  says  himself. 

Perhaps  it  may  seem  even  more  difficult 
to  explain  that  the  bust  of  a  Roman 
Emperor  who  is  undoubtedly  Lucius  Se- 
verus  of  the  second  century  could  be  called 
by  Cellini  a  bust  of  Julius  Caesar.  But  we 
should  remember  that  at  Cellini's  time 
the  iconography  of  the  Roman  busts  was 
very  confused,  and  we  could  not  quite 
imagine  that  Cellini  would  have  made  a 
companion  piece  of  a  young  girl  to  one 
of  the  real  busts  of  Caesar,  who  is  usually 
represented  as  an  elderly,  bearded,  and 
hairless  person.  The  companion  of  the 
young,  pretty  girl  had  to  be  a  youthful, 
good-looking  man  which  certainly  fits 
much  better  than  a  Julius  Caesar. 


14 


TRIBUTE  TO  W.  R.  VALRNTINER 


By  Luther  H.  Hodges 
Governor  of  North  Carolina 


May  I  say  welcome  to  all  the  distin- 
guished guests  that  are  here,  particularly 
those  from  out  of  the  State  and  also  the 
wonderful  people  from  within  the  State. 

I  would  like  to  add  a  word  to  that  of 
Dr.  Humber  and  others  who  will  follow  of 
appreciation  to  Dr.  Valentiner,  and  just  a 
personal  glimpse  or  so. 

Never  has  a  State  benefited  so  well  as 
it  has  from  the  investment  which  it  put 
in  Dr.  Valentiner  after  urging  him  to  come 
in  the  evening  of  his  life  to  help  this  State 
start  an  art  museum.  As  was  mentioned,  I 
saw  him  very  early,  became  one  of  his 
close  friends,  enjoyed  seeing  him  often, 
liked  the  twinkle  in  his  eye,  liked  the  way 
he  held  out  his  hearing  aid,  and  the  sense 
of  humor  in  what  he  said,  liked  his  devotion 
to  duty,  to  art,  and  to  the  best  that  there 
was  in  art.  Many  times  we  talked  about 
things;  what  are  we  going  to  do  for  the 
future;  how  are  we  going  to  make  this 
Art  Museum  the  prettiest  one  in  all  the 
world,  not  the  biggest,  but  the  prettiest. 
I  gloried  in  his  courage  and  his  vision; 
even  in  the  twilight  of  his  life  he  had  courage 
and  vision  that  would  challenge  any  of  us. 

I  recall  when  I  last  saw  him.  My  daughter 
and  I  were  having  lunch  in  the  Four 
Seasons  Hotel  in  Munich,  last  year,  and 


who  should  get  up  from  the  table  adjoining 
but  Dr.  Valentiner — to  come  over  and  talk 
about  North  Carolina  and  the  Museum  of 
Art.  I  did  not  know,  of  course,  he  was 
there  in  the  room,  but  I  knew  he  was 
travelling  in  Europe.  The  following  night, 
as  we  were  coming  in,  Dr.  Valentiner  had 
just  returned  from  a  walk  and  he  stopped 
by  to  say,  "Please  take  time  to  go  to  the 
Museum  here  in  Munich  tomorrow  and 
see  a  certain  picture."  And  that  was  his 
last  word  to  me. 

We  have  not  seen  him  since,  but  his 
contribution  can  be  unmeasured  and  his 
influence  is  limitless.  They  often  say  that 
an  institution  is  a  lengthened  shadow  of  an 
individual;  that  was  true  in  Dr.  Valen- 
tiner's  case. 

We  have  here  today  these  distinguished 
people — Mr.  Rathbone  of  Boston,  Mr. 
Richardson  of  Detroit,  Mr.  Lee  of  Cleve- 
land— all  of  these  distinguished  gentlemen 
proteges  of  the  master,  and  now  masters 
in  their  own  right.  We  appreciate  their 
coming;  we  appreciate  the  others  in  the 
audience  who  have  helped  us  so  much, 
and  those  all  over  America  who  have  seen 
the  vision  that  Dr.  Valentiner  started  and 
have  helped  this  State  and  its  Art  Museum. 
I  join  in  great  praise  to  his  memory. 


15 


TRIBUTE  TO  W.  R.  VALENTINER 

By  Edwin  Gill 

State  Treasurer  of  North  Carolina 


Mr.  Humber,  Governor  Hodges,  and 
distinguished  guests,  it  is  a  real  privilege 
and  honor  for  me  to  pay  tribute  to  my 
friend  Valentiner.  I  will  leave  to  others  the 
evaluation  of  his  scholarly  career.  I  thought 
I  might  give  you  one  or  two  sidelights. 

Valentiner  was  intellectually  a  citizen 
of  the  world;  he  was  at  home  in  Paris, 
London  and  Rome.  He  was  equally  at 
home  in  the  great  metropolitan  centers  of 
this  country:  New  York,  Detroit  or  Los 
Angeles;  and  yet,  in  less  than  three  short 
years,  he  became  a  citizen  of  Raleigh — a 
genuine  Tar  Heel.  This  ability  of  Valen- 
tiner's  to  become  a  part  of  life  wherever  he 
was,  I  think,  is  one  of  the  secrets  of  his 
greatness.  He  was  deeply  concerned  about 
this  community;  he  wanted  it  to  grow  in 
grace  and  beauty.  He  called  me  one  day 
and  said,  "Mr.  Gill,  I  have  a  very  important 
matter  to  discuss  with  you."  And  he  came 
over.  He  said.  "I  hear  they  are  going  to 
tear  down  another  old  home  on  Blount 
Street  to  make  way  for  a  filling  station.  I 
am  not  so  enamoured  of  Victorian  archi- 
tecture, but  these  beautiful  old  homes 
stand  for  something;  they  are  authentic  and 
they  should  be  preserved."  Another  time 
he  came  to  see  me  and  said,  "They  tell  me 
they  are  going  to  tear  down  the  Dortch 
house,  pave  it  and  make  a  parking  lot  out 
of  it  and  I  am  greatly  distressed."  I  tried 
to  explain  to  the  Doctor  what  progress 
meant  in  terms  of  some  people.  He  shook 
his  head,  he  said,  "It's  terrible,  it's  just 
terrible." 


I  mention  these  things  to  you  because 
the  Doctor  loved  Raleigh  and  North 
Carolina.  He  came  here  and  spoke  at  our 
first  opening,  and  in  his  address  that  he 
made  he  referred  to  Thomas  Wolfe.  He  was 
so  delighted  to  learn  that  Wolfe,  whom  he 
had  admired  so  long,  was  a  North  Caro- 
linian. 

In  the  Museum  tonight,  you  will  see  a 
great  collection  of  paintings  that  reflect  the 
Doctor's  very  broad  appreciation  of  art, 
and  you  will  see  there  emphasized  Rem- 
brandt and  Frans  Hals.  Frans  Hals,  the 
extrovert,  the  man  who  loved  to  get  around 
with  good  fellows  and  have  a  good  time; 
Rembrandt  the  introvert;  the  man  who  was 
of  a  piritual  nature.  The  Doctor  loved  both 
of  them;  he  was  an  authority  on  both;  and 
yet,  I  believe  that  Valentiner  was  closer  to 
Rembrandt  than  Hals.  He  liked  Hals,  he 
liked  the  jovial  character,  he  liked  to  take 
time  out  to  have  a  good  time  with  him  as 
a  comrade,  but,  when  he  withdrew  within, 
to  the  cloister  of  his  own  soul,  I  believe  he 
was  closer  to  Rembrandt. 

I  never  heard  Dr.  Valentiner  mention 
politics.  I  never  heard  him  mention  religion 
in  terms  of  creed,  but  I  am  satisfied  there 
was  never  a  man  more  completely  con- 
cerned with  the  welfare  of  his  country  or 
with  the  great  spiritual  qualities  of  life. 

I  like  to  think:  here  was  a  man  born  in 
Germany;  no  man  was  ever  a  truer  German 
than  he  was,  and  yet,  no  man  was  ever  a 
truer  American.  We  begged  him  not  to  go 
to  Europe  the  last  time,  because  we  feared 


16 


he  would  never  return,  but  duty  drove 
him  on  and,  when  he  got  there  in  his 
native  country  where  he  was  born,  and 
became  ill,  he  literally  fought  with  all  his 
power  and  strength  to  get  back  to  America 
— his  adopted  country.  For  what?  To  die 
here  among  the  great  people  that  he  had 
learned  to  respect  and  to  love! 

When  he  died  and  the  news  came,  I 
got  into  a  taxi  here  in  Raleigh  and  the 
taxi  driver,  whom  I  know  so  well,  threw 
these  words  over  his  shoulder  as  though 


they  were  to  be,  of  course,  expected:  "I  am 
so  sorry  the  Doctor  died."  He  did  not  say, 
"Dr.  Valentiner,'1  but  I  knew  who  he 
meant.  When  I  went  into  the  Coffee  Shop 
here  at  the  Hotel,  the  waitresses  came  up 
and  they  said,  "Mr.  Gill,  we  are  so  sorry 
Dr.  Valentiner  has  passed." 

My  friends,  he  was  a  great  scholar,  but 
if  you  will  allow  me  and  permit  me  to 
revive  an  ancient  and  hackneyed  phrase 
that  now  takes  on  great  validity,  "He. 
was  a  scholar  and  a  gentleman." 


17 


TRIBUTE  TO  W.  R.  VALENTINER 


By  Edgar  P. 
Director  of  Detroit 

Mr.  Humber,  Governor  Hodges,  friends 
of  Dr.  Valentiner,  friends  of  the  North 
Carolina  Museum  of  Art,  I  have  been  in 
Raleigh  once  before  and  I  am  glad  to 
come  back  again  to  see  the  distinguished 
Museum  you  have  created  since  I  was  last 
here.  You  had  not  opened  your  Museum 
then.  I  must  congratulate  you  upon  some- 
thing really  quite  marvelous  that  you  have 
added  to  your  state.  It  is  no  small  achieve- 
ment. 

Dr.  Valentiner  was  your  first  Director 
and  in  a  sense  he  was  also  the  first  Director 
of  my  Museum,  because,  although  the 
Detroit  Museum  was  founded  in  1 885,  it 
was  completely  re-organized  and  begun 
over  again  when  Dr.  Valentiner  came 
there  in  1921. 

I  first  met  him  when  I  joined  the  Museum 
in  1930,  and  after  his  retirement  from 
Detroit  we  continued  to  edit  The  Art 
Quarterly  together  until  his  death;  so  I  had 
thirty  years  of  memories  to  look  back  on 
and  to  think  about  as  I  was  coming  here 
to  talk  to  you,  and  I  had  some  difficulty 
in  deciding  what  of  all  those  memories  to 
mention. 

It  happened  that  I  had  to  go  back  in 
these  last  days  and  read  some  family  letters. 
I  don't  like  to  read  old  letters,  I  don't 
think  it  does  anyone  any  good  to  read  cer- 
tain things — but  I  did  come  on  an  anecdote 
of  my  niece  Anne  which  set  me  thinking. 
Anne  was  then  about  five  or  six.  She  was 
heard  in  violent  argument  out-of-doors 
with  a  playmate,  named  Henry  Burrows, 


Richardson 
Institute  of  Arts 

from  next  door.  They  were  disputing  as 
to  whether  witches  and  fairies  and  giants 
and  ghosts  still  existed  in  the  world.  Anne 
ended  the  argument  by  saying,  "Well, 
maybe  there  aren't  any  witches  and  fairies 
anymore,  but  I  know  that  there  are  giants 
and  ghosts.  I  refer  you,  Henry  Burrows,  to 
Goliath  and  the  Holy  Ghost."  Anne  was 
wiser  than  she  knew  because  there  are,  in 
the  intellectual  world  in  which  Dr.  Valen- 
tiner did  his  work,  giants  and  ghosts  as 
sinister  as  those  that  Anne  had  read  about 
in  fairy  stories.  Real  ones.  There  are  the: 
giant  devisive  forces  of  rival  nationalisms 
and  rival  ideologies  which  are  rending  our 
civilization  into  fragments;  and  there  are 
smaller,  but  no  less  iniquitous  ghosts,  the 
envious  hostilities,  the  jealousies,  the 
quarrels  to  which  scholars  are,  alas,  no 
less  subject  than  other  people.  There  was 
no  one  more  impervious  to  small  resent- 
ments than  Dr.  Valentiner.  He  had  oc- 
casions, as  we  all  do,  yet  he  never  carried 
resentments,  no  matter  what  mean  things 
other  people  did  to  him.  And  he  was  com- 
pletely and  wholly  devoted  to  opposing 
the  giants  of  nationalisms  and  the  other 
devisive  ideas  of  our  day. 

It  seemed  to  be  very  characteristic  of 
him,  that  among  European  museum  people 
he  was  looked  upon  as  an  American  mu- 
seum director;  among  American  museum 
people  he  was  often  looked  upon  as  a 
European.  Actually  he  was  both,  and  he 
was  neither.  He  believed  that  artists  and 
indeed  all  creative  minds  create  an  ideal 


18 


world  of  the  mind  which  is  the  inheritance 
of  all  men.  It  was  to  that  ideal  world  of 
the  mind  that  he  devoted  his  life  and  his 
loyalties. 

You  know  that  he  came  to  this  country 
fifty  years  ago,  when  Pierpont  Morgan  was 
re-organizing  the  staff  of  the  Metropolitan 
Museum.  He  came  there  at  first  to  be  the 
Curator  of  Decorative  Arts,  but  being 
Curator  of  Decorative  Arts  meant  to  him 
Near  Eastern  rugs,  Italian  Renaissance 
sculpture,  the  Dutch  Old  Masters — indeed 
the  whole  world  of  the  arts.  He  was  there 
from  1908  to  1914  and  then,  like  so  many 
other  lives  in  the  excitement  of  that  time, 
he  was  swept  into  the  German  Army  and 
served  in  the  German  Army  throughout 
the  war. 

I  don't  know  if  all  of  you  are  aware 
that,  when  Franz  Marc,  the  most  brilliant 
and  promising  of  the  young  German  paint- 
ers of  that  generation,  was  killed  in  1917 
at  Verdun,  Bode,  the  great  director  of  the 
Berlin  Museum  and  a  man  of  immense 
prestige  in  his  whole  world,  decided  the 
time  had  come  to  use  his  prestige.  He 
went  to  his  friends  in  the  army  and  said, 
"We  have  lost  Franz  Marc,  whom  we 
could  not  afford  to  lose.  We  can't  afford 
to  lose  Valentiner,  too.  You  have  got  to  do 
something  to  get  him  out  of  the  front 
lines."  So  Valentiner  was  brought  back  to 
a  job  editing  a  paper  of  world  opinion  for 
the  information  of  the  German  General 
staff.  We  still  have,  in  our  archives  in 
Detroit,  the  files  of  that  paper  and,  thanks 
to  Bode,  he  survived  the  war.  Unfortu- 
nately, he  never  survived  some  of  the  resent- 
ments that  were  aroused  at  that  time. 
People  were  very  emotional  in  that  war 


and  at  the  Metropolitan,  I  regret  to  say, 
many  never  forgave  him  and  generated 
some  of  the  irritations  which  he  was  much 
too  big  a  man  to  pay  any  attention  to.  He 
came  back  to  this  country  in  1921  to  be 
first  Advisor  and  then  Director  of  my 
Museum  in  Detroit,  which  I  think  is  his 
most  characteristic  creation. 

Because  he  had  the  idea  that  in  the 
great  central  valley  of  this  continent,  where 
cities  are  so  new  -still  hardly  more  than 
a  hundred  years  old — a  museum  should 
be  a  new  thing.  After  all,  he  felt,  European 
museums  are  basically  still  storehouses 
for  the  inheritance  of  the  past  and  treasure 
houses  for  the  treasures  of  the  past.  In  a 
city  like  Detroit  the  past  is  relatively 
unimportant;  it's  the  future  that  counts. 
He  felt  that  we  deserved,  in  this  country 
which  he  adopted,  our  share  of  our  in- 
heritance of  the  great  achievements  of  the 
world  and  of  the  ideal  world  of  the  mind, 
as  a  foundation  for  what  we,  too,  would 
create  in  times  to  come. 

It  was  a  very  great  conception,  and  our 
Museum,  which  bears  his  stamp,  represents 
in  microcosm  the  entire  world  history  of 
man  from  the  first  appearance  of  the  in- 
stinct of  design  in  the  flints  of  pre-historic 
men  down  to  the  present  day.  In  so  doing 
he  gave  a  conscious  philosophy  to  the 
American  art  museum  which  it  had  never 
had  before,  and  a  marvelous  philosophy. 

I  think  that's  what  I  would  like  to  have 
you  think  about.  It  is  as  if  he  were  saying 
to  us,  "This  is  what  the  world  has  done 
the  best  the  world  has  done  from  the  be- 
ginning down  to  you.  You  take  it  from 
here.  Add  what  you  can."  That  is  our 
inheritance  from  him. 


19 


REMINISCENCES  OF  DR.  VALENTINER 


By  Sherman  E.  Lee 

Director  of  Cleveland  Museum 


Mr.  Humber,  Governor  Hodges,  ladies 
and  gentlemen,  I  speak  as  the  youngest  of 
us;  and  certainly  by  all  odds,  the  brashest — 
at  least  at  that  time. 

The  Doctor,  and  to  me  he  was  always 
the  Doctor,  was  the  most  patient  and 
kindly  of  men  with  the  beginning  student — 
and  he  had  to  be.  I  well  remember  my 
first  coming  to  Detroit  with  a  fresh  Doctor- 
ate with  little  real  knowledge  behind  it, 
and  how  the  Doctor  took  this  raw  human 
and  tried  somehow  or  other  to  expose  him 
to  things  he  had  never  dreamt  of.  In  the 
field  of  contemporary  art,  one  of  his 
greatest  enthusiasms,  he  opened  a  world  to 
me  which  was  until  then  closed;  for  that  I 
owe  him  the  highest  gratitude. 

By  patience,  I  mean  his  taking  me  to  the 
great  Rembrandt  Exhibition  held  at  the 
Art  Institute  of  Chicago  some  years  ago. 
We  stood  in  front  of  the  Lucretia  from  the 
Minneapolis  Museum,  which  I  now  know 
to  be  a  great  picture;  and  I,  with  my 
then  accustomed  reticence,  said,  "Oh,  I 
don't  like  it!  It's  no  good!  It  can't  be 
Rembrandt!"  The  Doctor  patiently  looked 
at  me,  said  nothing  cutting  as  he  probably 
could  have,  but  gently  and  kindly  ex- 
plained to  me  why,  in  his  opinion,  it  was. 
It  is  pure  pleasure  to  acknowledge  such 
errors  publicly;  but  this  is  not  a  brain- 
washing session. 

His  interest  in  the  contemporary  artists 
was  extraordinary,  beginning  with  his 
enthusiasm  for  the  German  Expressionists, 
great  painters  he  knew  personally,  Kirch- 


ner,  Nolde,  and  others,  and  continuing  to 
the  most  extreme  contemporary  expres- 
sions of  today.  He  was  the  first  in  the 
museum  field  to  really  pay  attention  to 
artists  such  as  Morris  Graves  and  Mark 
Tobey  from  my  native  Seattle.  When  he 
went  to  California,  he  naturally  became 
interested  in  the  contemporary  expressions 
there.  Pictures  by  Diebenkorn  hanging  in 
the  memorial  exhibition  attest  to  this 
interest. 

His  interests  were  so  broad  that  one 
could  hardly  count  them.  In  my  specialty, 
Oriental  Art,  he  had  a  very  extraordinary 
eye  for  quality — he  usually  knew  the  very 
best  from  the  almost  good  enough.  Here 
he  may  have  been  hazy  on  details  of  dating 
and  provenance,  those  things  of  particular 
interest  to  the  Orientalist,  but  his  eye  for 
quality  was  almost  infallible.  Just  before 
I  left  Detroit,  we  had  one  of  our  few  serious 
disagreements.  He  wanted  to  buy,  and  we 
did  buy  for  Detroit,  a  wooden  sculpture 
of  a  monk,  which  he  confidently  attributed 
to  the  Kamakura  Period,  about  the  thir- 
teenth century.  I  was  equally  confident 
that  it  was  not  of  the  Kamakura  Period; 
and  in  this  I  was  right.  However,  I  was 
quite  wrong  about  the  quality  of  the  piece. 
Later,  when  in  Tokyo  I  was  able  to  estab- 
lish the  sculpture's  specific  origin  in  a 
temple  called  Rakan-ji  and  wrote  an 
article  acknowledging  the  quality  of  the 
piece  that  I  had  so  vehemently  denied  and 
which  the  Doctor  had  so  rightly  perceived. 

There   is   one   final   illustration,  both 


20 


humorous  and  significant  that  illustrates 
in  a  homely  way  those  qualities  of  the 
Doctor  which  endeared  him  to  me.  In  the 
days  at  Detroit,  in  addition  to  my  Oriental 
duties,  I  was  responsible  for  the  branch 
museum  of  Italian  Renaissance  decorative 
arts,  called  Alger  House.  In  one  of  the 
main  rooms  there  was  a  long  walnut  table 
of  the  sixteenth  century  on  which  were 
exhibited  three  pieces  of  Italian  Majolica. 
The  Doctor  preferred  them  displayed  on 
a  velvet  runner;  I  preferred  them  shown 
on  the  natural  walnut.    Every  morning, 


when  I  came  into  the  branch  museum 
where  Dr.  Valentiner  had  an  apartment, 
the  three  Majolica  bowls  would  be  on  a 
velvet  runner.  Every  morning  I  carefully, 
and  silently,  removed  the  velvet  runner 
and  was  able  to  look  at  the  three  pieces  of 
Italian  Majolica,  until  five  o'clock — on 
the  walnut.  The  next  morning  they  would 
be  back  on  the  velvet  runner.  This  went 
on  for  months  and  months  though  neither 
of  us  would  speak  of  it  and  neither  would 
relinquish  his  preference,  each  had  respect 
for  the  opinion  of  the  other. 


21 


W.  R.  VALENTINER 


By  Perry  T.  Rathbone 
Director  Boston  Museum  of  Fine  Arts 


My  first  meeting  with  William  Valen- 
tiner  nearly  twenty-five  years  ago  was 
preceded  by  six  weeks  of  excited  and 
unremitting"  anticipation  amongst  the  mu- 
seum family  of  the  Detroit  Institute  of 
Arts  where  I  had  recently  become  the 
most  junior  member.  Detroit  was  recover- 
ing slowly  from  the  first  body  blows  of 
the  depression.  The  Museum,  perhaps 
hardest  hit  of  all  the  cultural  institutions 
of  the  city,  had  slowed  to  a  near  halt. 
Indeed,  so  drastic  was  the  curtailment 
that  its  doors  had  closed  for  a  while  and 
the  principals  of  the  staff,  including  its 
Director,  had  been  forced  to  resign.  Now 
after  an  absence  of  two  years  and  only  on 
a  half-yearly  basis,  the  Director  was  about 
to  come  back.  In  spite  of  the  fact  his 
achievements  were  described  in  almost 
legendary  terms,  upon  leaving  Detroit  he 
had  been  obliged  to  give  up  his  home;  his 
books  and  paintings  were  stored,  his 
furniture  and  his  piano  were  scattered 
amongst  friends  and  strangers,  sold  for 
next  to  nothing  or  given  away.  In  order 
to  live  he  had  had  to  part  with  two  or 
three  of  his  cherished  Rembrandt  drawings. 
Now  he  was  coming  back.  Everything,  I  was 
assured,  would  change.  The  clouds  would 
lift,  the  atmosphere  brighten.  Things  would 
happen. 

If  anything,  these  cries  of  anticipation 
were  an  understatement.  William  Valen- 
tiner  surpassed  all  my  expectations  as  a 
human  being.  His  bright  and  cheerful 
manner,  his  immense  personal  charm  won 


me  immediately.  There  was  a  light  in  his 
eye,  a  keenness  in  his  address.  I  admired 
his  aristocratic  bearing.  As  a  very  young 
man  myself  I  couldn't  help  but  respond 
to  the  youthfulness  implicit  in  his  elastic 
step,  his  eagerness  and  the  optimism  which 
governed  everything  he  did.  All  of  this 
was  apparent  upon  first  meeting. 

I  dwell  upon  this  personal  reminiscence 
not  only  because  it  emphasizes  the  power 
of  Valentiner's  personality,  but  also  be- 
cause it  demonstrates  so  clearly  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  traits  in  his  character  — 
his  wonderful  gift  for  beginning  again,  his 
almost  compulsive  habit  of  looking  for- 
ward. For  him  the  depression  was  financial 
ruin,  and  the  future  was  anything  but 
secure  in  1934,  yet  so  positive  was  his  own 
outlook  that  he  generated  confidence  in 
everyone.  Throughout  his  long  career  he 
was  beset  by  an  uncommon  number  of 
hardships  — ranging  from  disasters  to  mere 
difficulties  — setbacks,  disappointments  and 
reverses  that  would  have  overwhelmed  a 
lesser  spirit.  Yet  resilience  and  a  capacity 
to  respond  to  challenge  were  deeply  planted 
in  his  nature  so  that  he  could  renew  his  life 
repeatedly  and  without  loss. 

We  all  know  that  Valentiner  had  the 
good  fortune  to  begin  his  long  and  in- 
credibly productive  activity  under  the 
greatest  museum  man  of  our  day,  Wilhelm 
von  Bode,  and  it  is  perhaps  not  to  be 
wondered  at  that  not  only  were  the  two 
specialties  of  the  Director  of  the  Kaiser- 
Friedrich-Museum —Dutch    painting  and 


22 


Italian  sculpture — inherited  by  his  brilliant 
understudy  but,  like  Bode  also,  the  ar- 
tistic expression  of  virtually  every  age 
and  culture  absorbed  him  at  some  time 

j  in  his  career.  Yet,  unlike  Bode  and  most 
of  his  generation— indeed,  to  an  uncommon 
degree  amongst  his  contemporaries  and 
even  younger  men — he  was  always  a 
sympathetic  student  of  modern  art.  What 
other  museum  man  had  the  understanding 

I  to  buy  a  Van  Gogh  drawing  as  early  as 
1905?  Who  else,  besides  Roger  Fry,  as  a 
member  of  the  Metropolitan  Museum  staff 
before  the  First  World  War,  urged  the 
purchase  of  a  Cezanne?  Following  his 
service  in  the  German  Army,  Valentiner 
plunged  into  the  artistic  ferment  of  Berlin 
in  the  early  twenties,  eagerly  associating 
with  the  most  progressive  artists  of  the 
day,  buying  their  works  in  quantity,  though 
poor  himself,  in  order  to  encourage  them, 
and  applying  his  art-historical  knowledge 
and  critical  acumen  in  writing  about  them 
while  he  was  equally  absorbed  in  his 
studies  of  Rembrandt.  Until  his  death  this 
sympathetic  interest  in  the  contemporary 
never  flagged.  It  was  characteristic  of  him 
that  he  bought  the  only  painting  sold  in 
the  first  exhibition  of  Kirchner  in  this 
country,  not  only  as  an  act  of  faith  in 
Kirchner,  but  also  to  encourage  the  friend- 
less and  struggling  art  dealer  from  Berlin, 
the  late  Curt  Valentin,  in  his  first  New 
York  show.  One  is  not  surprised  to  learn 
that  he  bequeathed  this  painting,  "The 
Hockey  Players,"  to  the  North  Carolina 
Museum  of  Art.  But  his  acts  of  kindness  and 
generosity  to  artists  in  both  Europe  and 
America  are  too  numerous  to  mention.  It 
is  likewise  impossible  to  calculate  his 
influence  in  advancing  an  appreciation  of 
modern  art  in  this  country.  The  minds  of 


countless  people  have  felt  the  effect  of  his 
thinking.  That  the  collections  of  many 
amateurs  and  museums  are  the  richer  in 
the  art  of  our  time  is  due  to  his  insight  as 
a  critic,  not  to  mention  his  liberality  as 
a  donor. 

One  does  not  need  to  dwell  upon  William 
Valentiner  as  a  connoisseur  and  scholar, 
nor  upon  his  ebullience  as  a  creative  person. 
We  are  aware  of  the  quality  of  his  imagina- 
tion and  the  scope  of  his  enterprise  by  the 
prodigality  of  his  accomplishments  as  a 
museum  man  and  by  the  range  of  his 
thought  as  a  writer.  I  should  not  like  to 
leave  unmentioned,  however,  the  personal 
virtue  which  is  perhaps  the  most  laudable 
and  inspiring — his  courage.  He  had  the 
courage  to  leave  the  snugness  of  The  Old 
World  and  place  himself  in  the  vanguard 
of  the  long  procession  of  European  scholars 
who  have  helped  to  season  and  mature  our 
cultural  life  during  the  past  fifty  years.  He 
had  the  courage  to  renounce  security  in 
economic  crisis,  he  had  the  courage  to 
pull  up  stakes  and  re-establish  himself 
repeatedly  —and  even  at  the  age  of  seventy- 
five  when  he  came  to  you,  he  had  the 
courage  to  espouse  with  conviction  and 
utter  loyalty  unpopular  ideas  and  move- 
ments. As  a  scholar  he  had  the  courage 
and  intellectual  honesty  to  change  his 
opinion  and  to  admit  error. 

And  speaking  of  error,  I  think  on  this 
occasion  it  would  be  unnatural  to  obscure 
a  fact  that  we  are  all  conscious  of — that 
Valentiner  was  harshly  criticized  by  his 
colleagues  in  this  country — and  quite  un- 
justifiably— for  writing  certifications  of 
works  of  art  on  the  market.  Here  his 
ingenuous  honesty  did  him  a  disservice. 
While  the  museums  he  directed  profited 
greatly  by  the  gifts  he  obtained  by  this 


I 


23 


means,  his  character  was  impugned  by 
others  as  much  out  of  professional  jealousy 
as  out  of  a  mistaken  sense  of  ethical  viola- 
tion. Through  his  close  contacts  with 
dealers  and  the  market  as  a  builder  of  four 
museum  collections  and  by  virtue  of  his 
incomparably  broad  and  authoritative 
knowledge  in  this  country,  it  was  hardly 
possible  for  him  to  avoid  a  practice  quite  in 
keeping  with  his  European  background. 
His  boyish  naivete  toward  the  problems  it 
raised  could  not  inhibit  him;  his  enthusiasm 
gave  him  license.  As  a  close  associate  for 
many  years,  I  can  say  that  his  motives  were 
unselfish  and  of  a  purity  characteristic  of 
his  unworldly  and  noble  nature. 

Valentiner    carried    his    learning  and 


wisdom  lightly.  He  was  too  conscious  of  the 
foibles  and  weaknesses  of  human  nature, 
including  his  own,  to  tolerate  self-impor- 
tance or  vanity.  He  was  serious  about  his 
own  idealism;  he  had  an  inborn  and  deep 
concern  for  creativity  in  all  its  forms,  almost 
to  the  point  of  worship.  In  other  matters 
he  was  quick  to  appreciate  the  funny  side. 
He  welcomed  the  slightest  chance  to 
express  his  wit. 

The  world  knows  Valentiner  the  scholar 
and  the  museum  director.  Those  who  knew 
him  personally  cannot  forget  his  humanity. 
It  was  one  of  the  rare  privileges  in  the 
lives  of  most  of  us  here  today  to  have 
•known  the  whole  man. 


24 


WILLIAM  REINHOLD  VALENTINER 


By  Robert  Lee  Humber 

President,  State  Art  Society 


It  has  been  said  that  every  great  man 
leaves  a  legacy  to  enrich  mankind,  Wil- 
liam R.  Valentiner  fulfilled  in  plentitude 
this  dictum.  He  was  one  of  humanity's 
gifted  sons. 

His  passing  on  September  the  sixth  im- 
poverished the  art  world  of  an  historic 
figure  and  the  North  Carolina  Museum 
of  Art  of  its  cherished  leader  and  friend. 

His  life  was  dedicated  to  art.  In  the 
domain  of  letters  he  was  an  artist  in  words. 
His  knowledge  of  universal  art  was  un- 
rivalled in  this  generation.  He  was  the 
author  of  over  thirty  volumes  and  eight 
hundred  articles  in  his  chosen  field.  His 
scholarly  attainments  are  his  ageless  me- 
morials and  his  credentials  of  immortality. 

Yet  he  led  an  active  life  of  executive 
responsibility,  embracing  a  full  half-century, 
as  Curator  of  Decorative  Arts  at  the 
Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art  in  New 
York  City,  and  as  director  of  the  Institute 
of  Arts  in  Detroit,  the  Los  Angeles  County 
Museum  in  Los  Angeles,  the  J.  Paul  Getty 
Museum  in  Santa  Monica,  and  the  North 
Carolina  Museum  of  Art  in  Raleigh.  Under 
his  guidance  were  trained  some  of  the 
most  eminent  museum  directors  of  our 
time. 

He  had  a  genius  for  discovering  master- 


pieces lost  through  the  centuries  to  art 
historians.  Many  a  museum  in  America 
and  Europe  has  been  enriched  by  his 
intuitive  excursions  into  the  treasure  houses 
of  the  Continent  and  by  his  remarkable 
finds.  How  appropriate  that  his  last  great 
discovery,  made  during  his  recent  trip  to 
Europe,  should  have  been  a  portrait  by 
Rembrandt. 

Dr.  Valentiner  was  sought  by  art  patrons 
throughout  the  world  for  attributions  to 
authenticate  works  of  art,  by  scholars  for 
his  rare  judgment  in  appraising  the  timeless 
qualities  of  a  masterpiece,  and  by  art 
lovers  in  every  land  because  he  inspired 
them  through  his  writings  to  love  beauty 
and  to  feel  the  spiritual  uplift  of  an  artist's 
dream  reduced  to  canvas  or  carved  in 
stone. 

William  R.  Valentiner  symbolized  an 
epoch,  the  greatest  fifty  years  yet  known 
in  museum  history,  and  North  Carolina 
is  proud  and  grateful  to  have  had  his 
services  as  the  first  director  of  its  State 
Museum  of  Art. 


Reprinted  from  NORTH  CAROLINA  MU- 
SEUM OF  ART  BULLETIN,  Vol.  II,  No.  7, 
1958. 


25 


OBITUARY 
W.  R.  VALENTINER 

By  Colin  Agnew 


It  has  been  suggested  to  me  that  I  should 
write  a  few  lines  about  Doktor  Wilhelm 
Valentiner,  who  died  in  September  this 
year,  as  I  probably  knew  him  for  longer 
(since  1907)  and  more  intimately  than 
anyone  else  in  England.  I  make,  however, 
no  attempt  to  write  a  full-scale  biographical 
notice,  because,  owing  to  his  extraordinary 
versatility  and  widespread  interests  and 
activities,  I  would  need  the  collaboration 
of  many  scholars  in  different  fields,  and 
time  for  considerable  research  if  I  were 
to  do  him  full  justice.  Also,  very  unluckily 
for  me,  our  paths  in  life  stretched  in  different 
directions,  the  greatest  part  of  his  life 
having  been  spent  in  the  Middle  West  and 
Far  West  of  America,  with  the  consequence 
that  for  long  periods  I  was  out  of  touch 
with  him. 

Valentiner  was  born  in  1880  in  Karls- 
ruhe and  was  educated  at  Heidelberg 
University,  where  his  father  was  Professor. 
At  Heidelberg,  Valentiner  was  the  pupil 
of  the  great  art  historian,  Thode,  and  it 
was  there  that  he  obtained  his  Doctor's 
degree  with  an  article  on  Rembrandt: 
Rembrandt  auf  der  Lateinschule .  From  his 
earliest  years  Valentiner  was  a  passionate 
admirer  and  student  of  the  works  of  Rem- 
brandt. After  leaving  the  University,  about 
1905,  he  became  the  assistant  to  Dr. 
Hofstede  de  Groot  at  The  Hague,  where 
the  latter  was  engaged  on  the  earlier 
volumes  of  his  great  work  on  Dutch 
Painting.  Subsequently,  Valentiner  was 
taken  on  as  assistant  by  Dr.  Wilhelm  von 


Bode  at  The  Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum, 
Berlin.  Bode  at  once  recognized  the  out- 
standing gifts  of  his  young  assistant,  and 
encouraged  him  in  every  possible  way.  It 
was  at  this  time  that  Valentiner  published 
a  quite  considerable  work  on  Rembrandt 
called  Rembrandt  in  Bild  und  Wort  for  which 
Bode  wrote  the  introduction. 

I  was  then  starting  a  branch  of  our  firm 
in  Berlin  and  so  had  frequent  opportunities 
of  meeting  both  Bode  and  Valentiner. 
Other  distinguished  contemporaries  of  Val- 
entiner living  in  Berlin  and  connected  with 
the  Museum  at  that  time  were  Hadeln, 
Voss,  and  Posse.  By  now  Valentiner  had 
become  one  of  the  leading  authorities  on 
Rembrandt  and  the  whole  Dutch  seven- 
teenth-century school,  and  it  was  about 
this  time  that  he  published  the  volume  on 
Rembrandt  in  the  Klassiker  der  Kunst  series. 
In  1908,  on  the  recommendation  of  Bode, 
he  was  appointed  by  the  Metropolitan 
Museum  of  New  York  as  their  first  Curator 
of  decorative  works  of  art.  I  should  add 
here  that  Valentiner  had  already  shown  a 
tremendous  interest  in  and  knowledge  of 
tapestries,  stained  glass,  sculpture,  furni- 
ture, and  minor  works  of  art,  and  already 
before  leaving  Germany  had  been  asked  to 
undertake  a  catalogue  of  the  famous  Beit 
Hispano-Mauresque  Collection. 

My  next  meeting  with  him  was  on  my 
first  visit  to  America  in  1912,  where  I 
found  that  he  had  already  achieved  for 
himself  an  outstanding  position  in  the 
American  museum  world.  He  had  a  dis- 


26 


tinguished  and  charming  assistant  in  the 
person  of  Durr  Friedly,  who  had  become, 
and  remained,  devoted  to  him.  During 
this,  his  first  period  in  America,  he  founded 
the  journal,  Art  in  America.  In  1909  he 
organized  the  wonderful  exhibition  of 
Dutch  seventeenth-century  pictures  for  the 
Hudson-Fulton  Celebrations.  This  was  the 
first  great  exhibition  of  Old  Masters  ever  to 
be  held  in  America,  and  as  such  it  had  his- 
torical as  well  as  high  aesthetic  significance. 
During  this  period  he  was  producing 
catalogues  of  several  of  the  great  American 
collections.  Among  these  were  the  volumes 
on  the  Dutch  and  Flemish  paintings  in  the 
Johnson  Collection  in  Philadelphia.  When 
the  first  world  war  broke  out  in  1914, 
Valentiner  was  on  holiday  in  Germany, 
and  of  course  was  obliged  to  remain  there, 
and  although  loathing  anything  in  the 
nature  of  war,  he  volunteered  for  the 
German  army. 

For  a  few  years  after  the  war  he  remained 
in  Berlin,  occupying  himself  as  a  lecturer 
and  as  a  private  tutor  in  art  history  to 
various  distinguished  people,  among  them 
the  Crown  Princess  of  Prussia,  with  whom 
he  made  great  friends. 

Valentiner  returned  to  America  in  1921 
where  he  was  at  first  advisor  to  the  Detroit 
Museum,  and  then  in  1924  became  Di- 
rector, a  position  which  he  held  until 
1945.  It  was  here  perhaps  that  his  most 
constructive  work  of  all  was  done.  It  was 
during  this  time  and  due,  I  am  sure, 
largely  to  his  enthusiasm,  that  a  fine  new 
museum  building  was  opened.  It  was  he 
who  encouraged  many  of  the  very  rich 
Detroit  citizens  to  make  really  serious  col- 
lections of  pictures  and  works  of  art.  Among 
these  collectors  were  Edsel  Ford,  the  Fisher 
brothers,  Ralph  Booth,   Mrs.  Newberry, 


and  many  others.  As  Mr.  E.  P.  Richardson, 
the  present  Director  of  the  Detroit  Mu- 
seum, has  so  justly  said,  "He  found  Detroit 
with  a  small  provincial  gallery  and  left  it 
with  a  great  art  museum  famous  through- 
out the  world."  About  1930  with  the  advent 
of  Nazism  in  Germany,  Valentiner  ac- 
quired American  citizenship.  After  retiring 
from  the  Detroit  Museum  on  grounds  of 
age  (he  was  then  66),  with  characteristic 
energy  he  undertook  the  post  of  Director 
and  later  consultant  of  the  Los  Angeles 
County  Museum  of  Art  and  this  position 
he  maintained  until  1954.  In  1954  he  was 
also  the  first  Director  of  Mr.  Paul  Getty's 
Museum  in  California.  In  1955  he  went 
to  Raleigh  in  North  Carolina  to  become 
first  Director  of  the  then  new  North  Caro- 
lina Museum.  This  position  he  maintained 
until  his  death  in  September  of  this  year. 
Between  the  wars  and  afterwards  Valen- 
tiner produced  several  books  and  innumer- 
able articles  on  all  branches  of  art  history, 
particularly  Italian  sculpture.  Among  the 
books  were  volumes  in  the  Klassiker  der 
Kunst  series  on  Frans  Hals,  Pieter  de  Hooch, 
and  what  Valentiner  described  as  "re-found 
Rembrandts";  also  an  excellent  book  on 
Nicolaes  Maes.  From  1938  to  1949  he  was 
Editor  of  the  Art  Quarterly. 

During  the  period  that  he  was  at  Detroit 
and  in  California,  Valentiner  organized 
exhibitions  devoted  to  various  Old  Masters: 
Rembrandt,  Rubens,  and  Frans  Hals,  and 
also  one  on  the  School  of  Leonardo.  These 
were  done  on  a  scale  never  hitherto  at- 
tempted in  America.  For  the  New  York 
World's  Fair  in  1939,  he  served  as  Director 
General  of  the  "Masterpieces  of  Art"  ex- 
hibition. 

Throughout  his  life  he  had  made  notes 
with  the  idea  of  some  day  publishing  his 


27 


memoirs,  but,  alas,  he  was  not  to  live  long 
enough  to  put  them  together  for  publica- 
tion. He  came  to  Paris  and  London  this 
summer,  but  was  obviously  in  a  precarious 
state  of  health,  though  his  conversation  was 
as  lively  and  gay  as  ever.  In  Paris  his 
doctor  urged  him  to  return  immediately  to 
America,  but  nothing  would  stop  him  from 
making  a  further  journey  to  Munich  where 
he  wanted  to  do  some  research  work  for  an 
article  he  had  in  hand.  There  he  was  taken 
very  seriously  ill  and  after  weeks  in  hospital, 
was  only  just  able  to  return  to  New  York 
where  he  died  on  Saturday,  6th  September. 


He  left  behind  him  a  daughter  and  some 
grandchildren. 

Valentiner  was,  in  the  truest  sense,  a 
man  of  noble  character  and  of  most 
distinguished  mind.  He  had  also  to  an 
extraordinary  degree,  the  power  in  conver- 
sation of  stimulating  enthusiasm  for  any 
work  of  art  in  which  he  was  interested. 
His  knowledge  of  almost  all  branches  of 
art  seemed  limitless. 

I  regard  it  as  one  of  the  privileges  of  my 
life  to  have  been  his  friend. 

Reprint  from  THE  BURLINGTON  MAG- 
AZINE, December  1958,  p.  442. 


LETTER 
W.  R.  VALENTINER 

By  Hans  Hess 


Sir,  allow  me  to  add  a  few  lines  to  the 
distinguished  obituary  notice  on  the  death 
of  Professor  W.  R.  Valentiner  contributed 
by  Colin  Agnew  to  your  December  1958 
issue. 

In  doing  justice  to  the  late  Professor 
Valentiner's  outstanding  qualities,  one  great 
achievement  of  his  life  should  also  be 
emphasized:  his  active  participation  in  the 
battle  for  the  acceptance  of  Modern  art. 
Professor  Valentiner  joined  (in  Berlin  in 
1918)  the  revolutionary  Novembergruppe 
which  comprised  all  the  leading  artists  and 
intellectuals  in  Berlin  including  the  painters 
of  the  Sturm  Kreis  and  those  who  were  to 
form  the  Bauhaus.  After  he  returned  to 


America  he  was  the  first  to  acquire  for  his 
museum  in  Detroit  the  works  of  the  German 
Expressionists.  He  thus  early  on  (sic)  laid 
the  foundations  of  the  now  wide-spread  ac- 
ceptance of  central  European  art  in  the 
United  States. 

He  was  one  of  the  few  great  scholars  of 
traditional  art  whose  perception  included 
the  understanding  of  the  art  of  his  own 
time.  This  aspect  of  his  life  and  work  also 
needs  recognition,  and  it  is  for  this  part 
of  his  work  as  much  as  for  his  gifts  as  a 
curator  and  scholar  that  he  will  be  re- 
membered in  the  United  States  and  Europe. 

Reprint  from  THE  BURLINGTON  MAG- 
AZINE, January  7959,  p  28. 


29 


IN  MEMORIAM  WILHELM  R.  VALENTINER 
Eduard  Plietzsch 


Der  aus  einer  alten  deutschen  Gelehr- 
tenfamilie  stammende  Wilhelm  Reinhold 
Valentiner  wurde  1880  in  Karlsruhe  ge- 
boren,  wuchs  aber  in  Heidelberg  auf,  wo 
der  Vater  Universitatsprofessor  und  Direk- 
tor  der  Sternwarte  war.  In  Heidelberg 
erwarb  Wilhelm  R.  Valentiner  bei  Henry 
Thode  mit  seiner  Arbeit  "Rembrandt  auf 
der  Lateinschule11  den  Doktorgrad.  Schon 
als  junger  Student  hatte  er  durch  iiber- 
ragende  Begabung  und  liebenswerte  men- 
schliche  Eigenschaften  so  viel  Zuneigung 
erlangt,  dass  man  seiner  im  Heidelberger 
Kunsthistorischen  Institut  noch  jahrelang 
immer  wieder  mit  besonderer  Verehrung 
gedachte.  Dasselbe  wiederholte  sich  bald 
darauf  in  Holland,  wo  er  im  Haag  als 
Assistent  Hofstede  de  Groots  den  ersten 
Band  von  dessen  grossem  Katalogwerk 
bearbeitet  hat,  und  ebenso  in  Berlin,  als 
er  an  den  Museen  tatig  war.  Wenn  spater 
einmal  Rainer  Maria  Rilke  nach  der 
ersten  Begegnung  mit  Valentiner  ihm 
spontan  schrieb:  "Sie  wiederzusehen,  ware 
mir  die  fuhlbarste  Freude",  und  eine 
andere  Briefstelle  lautet:  "Der  Versuch, 
Sie  in  Berlin  wiederzusehen,  wird  sicher  zu 
dem  Ehesten  und  Herzlichsten  gehoren, 
das  ich  dort  unternehmen  werde",  dann 
waren  solche  Ausserungen  des  immer  sehr 
hoflichen  Briefschreibers  Rilke  in  diesem 
Falle  bestimmt  aufrichtig  gemeint.  Welch 
faszinierende  Wirkung  von  Valentiners 
Personlichkeit  ausging,  dafiir  nur  ein  Beis- 
piel:  ihm  wurde  in  Berlin  der  grosse 
japanische  Kunstsammler  Matsukata  vor- 
gestellt,  mit  dem  er  ein  kurzes  Gesprach 


begann.  Wahrend  der  Unterhaltung,  die 
kaum  zehn  Minuten  dauerte,  war  Matsu- 
kata von  Valentiners  unendlich  sympa- 
thischen  menschlichen  Eigenschaften,  von 
der  iiberlegenen  Klugheit  seines  Urteils,  von 
seinem  ebenso  liebenswiirdigen,  wie  bes- 
cheidenem  Wesen  dermassen  beeindruckt, 
dass  er  ihn  auf  der  Stelle  einlud,  nach 
Japan  zu  reisen  und  dort  sein  Gast  zu  sein 
—eine  Einladung,  die  iibrigens  Valentiner 
wegen  anderer  Verpflichtungen  ablehnen 
musste. 

Schon  als  28jahriger  war  er  auf  Emp- 
fehlung  Wilhelm  v.  Bodes  an  das  grosste 
und  bedeutendste  Museum  Amerikas,  an 
das  Metropolitan-Museum  in  New  York, 
als  "Curator"  berufen  worden.  Merk- 
wiirdigerweise  aber  nicht  an  die  Gemalde- 
galerie,  obwohl  der  spater  als  Gemalde- 
Kenner  weltberiihmt  gewordene  Forscher 
durch  seine  friihen  Arbeiten  iiber  Rem- 
brandt bereits  vorteilhaft  bekannt  geworden 
war,  sondern  an  die  Kunstgewerbeab- 
teilung.  Diese  Berufung  erscheint  allerdings 
weniger  sonderbar,  wenn  man  feststellt, 
dass  Valentiner  1906,  kurz  nach  Abschluss 
des  Universitatsstudiums,  den  Katalog  der 
spanisch-maurischen  Fayencen  der  Lon- 
doner Sammlung  Beit  verfasst  hat.  Es  muss 
iiberhaupt  ausdrucklich  hervorgehoben 
werden,  dass  er  nicht  bloss  ein  "Spezialist" 
fur  niederlandische  Malerei  war,  sondern 
im  Sinne  seines  grossen  Lehrmeisters  und 
Vorbildes  Wilhelm  v.  Bode  als  "Uni- 
versalist"  sich  wissenschaftlich  mit  den 
heterogensten  Gebieten  der  Kunstfors- 
chung,    mit    primitiven  niederlandischen 


30 


Meistern,  mit  italienischer  Plastik,  asiatis- 
chen  Teppichen  usw.  beschaftigt  hat. 
Ausserdem  war  er  ein  leidenschaftlicher 
Verehrer  der  modernen  Kunst,  fur  die  er 
sich  mit  jener  jugendlichen  Begeisterungs- 
fahigkeit,  die  er  sich  bis  ins  Greisenalter 
bewahrt  hat,  unermiidlich  einsetzte.  Die 
deutschen  Expressionisten,  vor  allem  den 
von  ihm  hochverehrten  Schmidt-Rottluff, 
propagierte  er  in  Amerika  schon  zu  einer 
Zeit,  als  er  damit  noch  auf  Widerstand 
stiess. 

Bei  Kriegsausbruch  1914  weilte  Valen- 
tiner  auf  Urlaub  in  Deutschland.  Er 
meldete  sich  freiwillig  zum  Heer,  und  ein 
wunderlicher  Zufall  fiigte  es,  dass  der  ihn 
ausbildende  Reserveoffizier  der  Maler 
Franz  Marc  war.  In  seinen  "Briefen  aus 
dem  Felde"  (wo  Valentiners  Name  durch 
einen  Druckfehler  entstellt  ist)  berichtet 
Franz  Marc  spater  seiner  Frau  u.  a.: 
"Valentiner  ist  ein  sehr  feiner,  hochge- 
bildeter  Mensch,  dessen  Verkehr  mir  eine 
grosse  Wohltat  ist." 

Nach  1918  war  an  die  Wiederaufnahme 
der  Museumstatigkeit  in  Amerika  zunachst 
nicht  zu  denken,  obwohl  von  Amerika  aus 
die  Beziehungen  zu  Wilhelm  R.  Valentiner 
uberraschend  schnell  wieder  angebahnt 
wurden.  Als  Privatgelehrter  lebte  er  meh- 
rere  Jahre  in  Berlin,  unternahm  grosse 
Studienreisen  ins  Ausland  und  wurde  auch 
schon  wieder  gelegentlich  als  Kunstexperte 
nach  den  Vereinigten  Staaten  gerufen. 

Unter  seinen  wissenschaftlichen  Arbeiten 
von  bleibendem  Wert  stehen  jene  iiber 
hollandische  Malerei,  vor  allem  iiber  Rem- 
brandt, obenan.  1907  gab  er  den  von  ihm 
revidierten  Band  samtlicher  Gemalde  Rem- 
brandts  in  der  Reihe  der  "Klassiker  der 
Kunst"  heraus,  dem  die  Bande  iiber  Frans 
Hals  und  Pieter  de  Hooch  and  spater  die 


Veroffentlichungen  der  Zeichnungen  Rem- 
brandts folgten,  von  denen  bisher  leider  nur 
zwei,  allerdings  stattliche  und  gehaltvolle 
Bande  erscheinen  konnten.  Daneben  ver- 
offentlichte  er  zahlreiche  whsenschaftliche 
Beitrage  nicht  nur  iiber  niederlandische 
Malerei  in  deutschen,  amerikanischen.  hol- 
landischen  und  englischen  Zeitschriften  und 
war  in  Amerika  Mitherausgeber  der  seriosen 
Kunstzeitschrift  "Art  in  America",  spater 
"The  Art  Quarterly". 

Wer  Gelegenheit  gehabt  hat,  mit  Valen- 
tiner eine  Zeitlang  gemeinsam  an  einem 
grosseren  kunsthistorischen  Werk  zu  ar- 
beiten, der  war  bei  jeder  Besprechung  im- 
mer  wieder  aufs  neue  durch  seine  origi- 
nellen  Einfalle  und  die  TrefTsicherheit 
seines  Urteils  uberrascht — und  manchmal 
auch  iiber  seine  ebenso  geistvolle,  wie 
kiihne  Kcmbinationsfahigkeit  verwundert. 
Einige  seiner  allzu  kiihnen  Zuschreibungen 
haben  auf  die  Dauer  der  Nachprufung  nicht 
standgehalten,  und  wegen  seiner  1922 
herausgegebenen  Publikation  wiedergefun- 
dener  Werke  Rembrandts  wurde  er  so 
scharf  attackiert,  dass  sich  der  friedfertige 
Gelehrte,  hilfreich  sekundiert  von  Hofstede 
de  Groot,  heftig  zur  Wehr  setzen  musste. 
Da  ihm  fast  jedes  alte  Gemalde,  das 
auch  nur  entfernt  irgendetwas  mit  Rem- 
brandt zu  tun  zu  haben  schien,  in  Europa 
und  Amerika  zur  Begutachtung  vorgelegt 
wurde,  so  ist  es  begreiflich,  wenn  in  einigen 
seltenen  Fallen  die  Entdeckerfreude  blind- 
lings  mit  ihm  durchging.  Aber  dieses  Buch, 
in  dem  Valentiner  zahlreiche,  zweifellos 
echte,  zum  Teil  recht  bedeutende  Gemalde 
Rembrandts  zum  ersten  Male  veroffent- 
lichen  konnte,  hat  auch  insofern  Wert,  als 
manche  problematischen  Bilder  sozusagen 
als  Rohmaterial  der  Kunstforschung  zur 


31 


Diskussion  und  zu  Vergleichszwecken  dar- 
geboten  wurden. 

1924  erfolgte  die  Berufung  Valentiners 
an  das  Museum  zu  Detroit,  dessen  Neubau 
wahrend  seiner  Direktionszeit  entstand. 
Nach  einigen  Jahren  kehrte  er  nach  Berlin 
zuriick,  siedelte  aber  bald  wieder  nach 
Amerika  iiber,  wo  er  jahrelang  Museums- 
direktor  in  Los  Angeles  und  seit  1955  in 
Raleigh  im  Staate  North  Carolina  gewesen 
ist. 

Als  Wilhelm  R.  Valentiner  im  vergan- 
genen  Friihjahr  in  Paris  zu  seinem  all- 
jahrlichen  Europa-Urlaub  eintraf,  der  fiir 
den  rastlos  tatigen,  mit  Gesuchen  um 
Gutachten  iiberhauften  Forscher  leider 
niemals  eine  ruhevolle  Ferienzeit  war, 
schrieb  ich  ihm,  er  mbge  diesmal  sich  Ruhe 
gonnen  und  in  den  Mussestunden  endlich 
seine  Lebenserinnerungen  vollenden,  von 
denen  man  nur  kurze  Bruchstiicke  kannte. 
In  seiner  hastigen  Handschrift,  der  man 
das  Gehetzte  des  mit  Arbeit  iiberlasteten 
Mannes  ansah,  anwortete  er:  "Die  Me- 
moiren  sind  noch  Stiickwerk  bisher:  wie 
weit  ich  damit  komme,  weiss  der  Himmel". 
Die  Vorsehung  liess  es  leider  nicht  mehr 


dazu  kommen.  In  Munchen  erkrankte  er 
schwer,  und  Anfang  September  ist  er  in 
New  York  im  Alter  von  78  Jahren  gestorben. 
Dass  seine  Lebenserinnerungen,  die  sich 
iiber  mehr  als  ein  halbes  Jahrhundert  ers- 
treckten,  die  seine  Tatigkeit  an  den  Museen 
von  Berlin,  New  York,  Detroit,  Los  Angeles 
und  Raleigh  umfassten,  in  denen  er  von 
seiner  jahrzehntelangen  Kenntnis  des  inter- 
nationalen  Kunsthandels  hatte  berichten, 
von  seinen  Begegnungen  mit  Forschern, 
Sammlern,  Kiinstlern  und  bedeutenden 
Personlichkeiten  des  geistigen  und  auch 
gesellschaftlichen  Lebens  aus  aller  Welt 
hatte  erzahlen  konnen,  nun  ungeschrieben 
bleiben  ist  tief  bedauerlich.  Allen,  die 
Valentiner  von  Jugend  an  kannten,  bleibt 
er  als  einer  der  liebenswertesten,  giitigsten 
und  hilfsbereitesten  Menschen  im  Ge- 
dachtnis.  Aus  den  kunst-und  kulturgeschi- 
chtlich  hochinteressanten  Memoiren  hatten 
aber  auch  ihm  personlich  Fernstehende 
erkennen  konnen,  welch  edler  und  lauterer 
Mann  dieser  Doktor  Wilhelm  R.  Valentiner 
war. 

Reprint  from  DIE  WELTKUNST,  Munich, 
October  1958. 


32 


WILHELM  R.  VALENTINER 
Friedrich  Winkler 


Bald  nach  der  Ruckkehr  von  einer  langen 
Europareise  ist  W.  R.  Valentiner  Anfang 
September  1958  in  New  York  im  Alter  von 
78  Jahren  gestorben.  Ein  schwerer  Herz- 
anfall  hatte  ihn  im  Juni  in  Miinchen  aufs 
Krankenlager  geworfen,  doch  war  er — 
wie  immer — guten  Mutes.  Er  wollte  noch 
einiges  schaffen,  sagte  er,  man  giaubte  an 
seinen  Optimismus,  wie  man  von  jeher  an 
ihn  geglaubt  hatte.  Denn  Valentiner  hatte 
in  dem  Auf  und  Ab  der  Jahrzehnte  der 
ersten  Jahrhunderthalfte  ein  geriitteltes 
Mass  von  Schwierigkeiten  wieder  und 
wieder  gemeistert.  Es  war  nicht  seine  Art, 
viel  Aufhebens  davon  zu  machen,  wie  er 
iiberhaupt  eine  bewundernswerte  Nichtach- 
tung  der  Wechselfalle  des  eigenen  Schick- 
sals  besass  und  ganz  in  der  Verfolgung  von 
wissenschaftlichen  und  musealen  Planen 
aufging,  die  sieh  ihm  fortwahrend  neu 
stellten  und  die  er  zielbewusst  und  zah 
verwirklichte.  Im  hohen  Alter  noch  zu  der 
Leitung  des  Museums  in  Raleigh  (North 
Carolina)  berufen,  des  ersten  offentlichen 
Museums  in  den  Vereinigten  Staaten,  das 
mit  Staatsmitteln  gegriindet  worden  war 
und  unterhalten  wird,  plante  er,  demselben 
eine  Skulpturensammlung  hinzuzufiigen, 
die  von  der  altesten  bis  in  die  jiingste  Zeit 
reichen  sollte.  Es  bestand  aus  einer  sehr 
ansehnlichen  Gemaldegalerie  mit  guten 
Werken  aus  fast  alien  Perioden  der  Mal- 
kunst,  aus  der  Valentiner  eine  Reihe 
Fehlkaufe  ausmerzte,  die  er  durch  wichtige 
Einzelstiicke  ersetzte.  Das  bedeutende  Friih- 
werk  Rembrandts,  "Die  Wut  des  Ahasver", 
vielleicht  die  gewichtigste  Arbeit  des  jungen 


Malers,  der  kleine  Hieronymus  aus  der 
Kolner  Sammlung  R.  v.  Schnitzler,  das 
einzigartige  Friihwerk  Stephan  Lochners, 
sind  darunter. 

Das  waren  Valentiners  letzte  Taten. 
Vorher  war  er  in  Los  Angeles  im  County 
Museum  und  im  Getty  Museum  in  Cali- 
fornien  tatig  gewesen.  Die  grossten  Ver- 
dienste  hat  er  sich  um  das  Museum  in 
Detroit  erworben,  das  durch  ihn  in  dem 
Jahrzehnt  nach  dem  ersten  Weltkrieg  eine 
Fiille  allererster  Bilder  und  Skulpturen 
bekommen  hat.  Die  Altniederlander  (Jan 
van  Eyck,  David,  Bruegel  usw.)  und  die 
hollandischen  Landschaftsmaler  des  17. 
Jahrhunderts  liberraschen  durch  die  Reich- 
haltigkeit  und  Geschlossenheit  innerhalb 
einer  Sammlung,  die  ebenso  durch  ihre 
italienischen  Kunstwerke  (Tizian,  Correg- 
gio,  Renaissanceskulpturen  usw.)  ein- 
drucksvoll  wirkt. 

Vor  dem  ersten  Weltkrieg  war  Valentiner 
eine  Reihe  von  Jahren  auf  Empfehlung 
Bodes  Leiter  der  Kunstgewerblichen  Ab- 
teilung  des  Metropolitan  Museums  in  New 
York  gewesen.  Er  hatte  bei  Hofstede  de 
Groot  und  ihm  ein  paar  Jahre  assistiert, 
nachdem  er  seine  Studien  bei  Thode  mit 
einer  Arbeit  iiber  "Rembrandt  und  seine 
Umgebung"  (1905)  abgeschlossen  hatte. 
Sie  machte  mit  Rembrandt  als  dem  "haus- 
lichen"  Maler  bekannt,  der  vom  engsten 
Familienkreise  seine  Inspirationen  empfing. 
Viele  seiner  Portrats  wurden  als  Darstel- 
lungen  seiner  Eltern,  Saskias,  Hendrikjes, 
Titus'  ermittelt. 

Vor  seinem  Weggang  aus  Europa  hatte 


33 


Valentiner  seine  Vertrautheit  mit  kunstge- 
werblichen  Dingen  durch  den  Katalog  der 
spanisch-maurischen  Fayencen  der  Samm- 
lung  Alfred  Beit  (1908)  und  durch  eine 
Studie  fiber  hollandische  Fliesenkeramik 
dokumentiert.  Er  blieb  in  Amerika  seiner 
alten  Liebe  zu  Bildern  treu  und  hat  zu  der 
Bevorzugung  italienischer  und  niederlan- 
discher  Gemalde  durch  die  amerikanischen 
Sammler  wie  zur  Bildung  von  Skulpturen- 
sammlungen  dort  viel  beigetragen.  Noch 
vor  dem  ersten  Weltkrieg  erschien  sein 
dreibandiger  Katalog  der  umfangreichen 
Sammlung  Johnson  in  Philadelphia  (der 
italienische  Band  in  Zusammenarbeit  mit 
Berenson),  spater  die  der  Sammlungen 
Goldman  (1922)  und  Widener  (1923).  In 
Detroit  veranstaltete  er  regelmassig  Aus- 
stellungen  grosser  Maler:  50  Bilder  von  van 
Dyck  1929,  Rembrandt  1930.  50  von  Hals 
1935,  60  von  Rubens  1936.  Auf  diese  Weise 
brachte  er  Bilder  in  die  dort  entstehenden 
Sammlungen.  1927  war  der  Ankauf  eines 
besonders  schonen  Rembrandt,  der  lieb- 
lichen  Heimsuchung  von  1640  (ehem. 
Herzog  von  Westminster),  gegliickt.  Die 
umfassendste  Ausstellung,  deren  Durch- 
fiihrung  ihm  anvertraut  wurde,  war  die 
dem  zweiten  Weltkrieg  unmittelbar  vor- 
angehende  der  grossartigen  Gemalde  und 
Bildwerke  aller  Art  auf  der  New  Yorker 
Weltausstellung  1939,  iiber  die  mehrere 
Kataloge  unterrichten. 

Valentiner  war  literarisch  sehr  produktiv. 
Er  schrieb  rasch  und  ideenreich,  nicht  ohne 
Anmut  und  jeder  echten  kiinstlerischen 
Ausserung  aufgeschlossen.  Sein  Interes- 
sengebiet  war  umfassend  und  gait  nicht 
zuletzt  auch  der  antiken  Skulptur.  Soviel 
ich  weiss,  gibt  es  keine  Bibliographie  seiner 
Schriften,  obwohl  unter  ihnen  Publika- 
tionen   uberraschender   Funde  sind.  Am 


bekanntesten  ist  er  als  Autor  mehrerer 
Bande  der  Klassiker  der  Kunst  geworden. 
Wie  die  meisten  der  weitverbreiteten  Reihe 
war  auch  der  Rembrandtband  anfangs  in 
Handen  von  unberufenen  Bearbeitern. 
Valentiner  wird  die  3.  sehr  verbesserte 
Auflage  des  Gemaldebandes  (1909)  ver- 
dankt,  zu  der  er  zweimal  Nachtrage  lieferte 
(Wiedergefundene  Gemalde  1921  und 
1923).  Auch  die  Bande  Frans  Hals  und 
Pieter  de  Hooch  sind  von  ihm.  Die  auf 
drei  Bande  veranschlagte  Edition  der 
Rembrandtzeichnungen  innerhalb  dersel- 
ben  Reihe,  zu  der  er  die  Mittel  selbst 
beschaffte,  ist  infolge  Vernichtung  des 
Materials  des  dritten  Bandes  nicht  iiber  die 
ersten  beiden  hinaus  gediehen  (1925,  1934). 
Man  wird  sie  trotz  Benesch's  umfassender 
Ausgabe  der  Zeichnungen  noch  immer  mit 
Nutzen  studieren,  man  mochte  ihr  sogar 
einen  Vollender  des  dritten  Bandes  wiin- 
schen,  weil  sie  sich  durch  ihre  Anlage 
empfiehlt.  Die  zahlreichen  Rembrandts  in 
Amerika  hat  er  in  einem  selbstandigen 
Buch  (1931)  behandelt.  Auch  Nic.  Maes 
widmete  er  eine  aufschlussreiche  Schrift 
(1924). 

Ein  Lieblingsgebiet  Valentiners  war  die 
italienische  Plastik.  Hier  war  er  neben 
Bode  wohl  der  erfolgreichste  Erforscher. 
Die  Funde  publizierte  er  meist  in  Zeit- 
schriften.  Biicher  iiber  Tino  da  Camaino 
(1935)  und  Michelangelo  (The  late  years  of 
Michel  Angelo,  1914)  sind  Nebenfriichte 
seines  unablassigen  Suchens.  Zumal  im 
Alter  hat  er  sich  viel  mit  italienischer 
Plastik  beschaftigt. 

Wenn  irgend  einer  die  ihm  nach  dem 
zweiten  Weltkriege  verliehene  Auszeich- 
nung  der  Bundesregierung  verdient  hat, 
ist  er  es  gewesen.  Er  war  spat  Amerikaner 
geworden  und  hat  zeitlebens  durch  sein 


34 


Wirken  dort  der  deutschen  Wissenschaft 
gedient.  Die  von  ihm  geleiteten  Zeitsch- 
riften  Art  in  America  (ab  1913)  und  Art 
Quarterly  (ab  1938)  vertreten  kenner- 
schaftliche  Arbeit  im  Sinne  Bodes  trotz 
beschrankter  Mittel.  Er  hat  zahlreiche 
Werke  zeitgenossischer  deutscher  Kiinstler 
fiir  sich  erworben,  gab  Biicher  iiber  den 
Bildhauer  Kolbe  (1922)  und  Schmit- 
Rottluff  (1922)  heraus  und  regte  ameri- 
kanische  Mitarbeiter  wie  Rathbone  in 
Boston  an,  expressionistisehe  Kunst  zu 
sammeln.  Dass  das  Museum  of  Modern  Art 
in  New  York  eine  grosse  Ausstellung 
deutscher  Kunst  des  20.  Jahrhunderts 
veranstaltete,  dass  Biicher  von  Kuhn  (iiber 
Expressionisten  in  der  Harvard  Collection 
in  Cambridge)  und  Zigrosser  (iiber  ex- 
pressionistisehe Graphik,  1957)  erschienen, 
diirft  indirekt  nicht  zuletzt  den  An- 
regungen  zu  verdanken  sein,  die  er  gegeben 
hat.  Kurz  vor  seinem  Tode  iiberraschte 
er  uns  mit  einer  Kirchner-Ausstellung  in 
Raleigh  (Januar  1958),  die  einen  erstaun- 
lichen  Reichtum  von  hervorragenden 
Werken  des  fuhrenden  deutschen  Meisters 
in  amerikanischen  Sammlungen  offenbart. 

Valentiner  entstammte  einer  Gelehrten- 
familie  und  der  Wissenschaft  war  er  immer 
hingegeben.  Aber  nichts  war  ihm  ferner  als 
Professionalismus,  nicht  als  Gelehrter  noch 
als  Museumsleiter;  er  war  vor  allem  ein 


urbaner,  charmanter  Mensch,  hilfsbereit 
und  enthusiastisch,  aber  in  seinem  Urteil 
geziigelt  von  seinem  universalen  Uberblick 
iiber  Menschen  und  Dinge.  Man  hat  ihm 
eine  allzu  grosse  Weitherzigkeit  in  seinen 
Zuschreibungen  vorgeworfen,  er  hat  wie 
wir  alle  geirrt.  Keiner  revidierte  sein  Urteil 
unbefangener  und  bereitwilliger.  Was  wol- 
len  die  Fehlurteile  besagen  angesichts  der 
fruchtbaren  Erkenntnisse,  die  er  in  iiber 
SOjahriger  Forscherarbeit  mit  leichter  Hand 
austeilte.  Auch  die  gewichtigsten  Beobach- 
tungen  vermittelte  er  mit  iiberlegener 
Gelassenheit  und  sozusagen  Weltlaufigkeit. 
Er  hatte  Erinnerungen  niedergeschrieben, 
die  leider  zum  grossten  Teil  von  ihm 
vernichtet  zu  sein  scheinen.  Was  hatte  er, 
der  viele  fur  sich  einzunehmen  wusste, 
ohne  urn  sie  zu  werben,  uns  von  seinen 
Begegnungen  mit  Bodenhausen,  Bode,  Hof- 
stede  de  Groot,  den  amerikanischen  Kunst- 
freunden  berichten  konnen!  So  bleibt  uns 
ausser  seinen  Leistungen  nur  die  Erinner- 
ung  an  einen  besonders  liebenswerten, 
lauteren  Menschen,  dessen  Reiz  in  einem 
unvergesslichen,  natiirlichen  Charme,  in 
einer  noblen  Haltung  und  einer  inneren 
Unabhangigkeit  gegeniiber  den  Dingen 
dieser  Welt  bestand. 

Reprint  from  KUNSTCHRONIK  {Special 
Supplement),  1959. 


35 


WILHELM  REINHOLD  VALENTINER 
Gedachtnis-Austellung  in  Raleigh,  N.  C. 


Fritz  W 

Als  das  North  Carolina  Museum  of  Art 
in  Raleigh  1957  Vorbereitungen  traf,  eine 
Ausstellung  zur  Ehrung  seines  ersten  Direk- 
tors  Wilhelm  Reinhold  Valentiner  (1880 — 
1 958)  zu  veranstalten,  sollte  dies  lediglich 
die  50jahrige  Tatigkeit  eines  grossen  deut- 
schen  Kunstgelehrten  im  Dienste  amerika- 
nischer  Museen  umfassen.  Durch  seinen 
Tod  im  letzten  September  ist  die  Jubilaum- 
sausstellung  zu  einer  Gedachtnisausstellung 
geworden. 

Das  Problem  einer  solchen  Veranstaltung 
war  nicht  einfach  zu  losen.  Bei  einem 
Kiinstler  zeigt  man  den  Ablauf  seiner 
Entwicklung  in  einer  retrospektiven  Schau, 
die  alle  Einfliisse  und  Epochen  seines 
Schaffens  aufzeigen.  Unsere  Museen  haben 
darin  eine  vortreffliche  Routine  entwickelt, 
wie  die  Picasso-Ausstellungen  anlasslich 
seines  75.  Geburtstages  bewiesen  haben. 
Wie  aber  zeigt  man  den  schopferischen 
Geist  eines  Gelehrten,  der  zu  den  grossten 
Museumsleitern  unserer  Zeit  zu  zahlen  ist 
und  dem  ganz  Amerika  eine  unendliche 
Bereicherung  seiner  Kunstschatze  zu  ver- 
danken  hat? 

Als  Schuler  von  Henry  Thode  und  Carl 
Neumann  in  Heidelberg  empfing  Valen- 
tiner das  wissenschaftliche  Riistzeug  der 
neuen  kunstgeschichtlichen  Methoden,  die 
um  die  Jahrhundertwende  der  Kunst- 
forschung  neue  Wege  wiesen.  Nachdem  er 
1904  seine  Dissertation  iiber  "Rembrandt 
und  seine  Umgebung"  geschrieben  hat, 
holte  ihn  Hofstede  de  Groot  nach  Holland, 
um  mit  ihm  die  deutsche  Ausgabe  von 


Neugass 

Rembrandts  Handzeichnungen  vorzuber- 
eiten  (1905)  sowie  ein  Werk  iiber  die 
hollandischen  Meister  des  17.  Jahrhunderts 
(1906).  Dann  kommt  er  zu  Wilhelm  von 
Bode  als  Assistent  an  das  Kaiser-Friedrich- 
Museum.  Hier  erwirbt  er  die  ersten  Kennt- 
nisse  der  Museumstechnik  als  Kurator 
der  dekorativen  Kiinste.  Bode  empfiehlt 
ihn  an  J.  P.  Morgan,  den  damaligen  Prasi- 
denten  des  Metropolitan  Museums  in  New 
York.  So  beginnt  1908  seine  amerikanische 
Museumskarriere. 

Als  Kenner  der  niederlandischen  Kunst 
wird  er  in  Amerika  zum  Gegenpol  von 
Bernard  Berenson,  der  sich  besonders  auf 
die  Kiinstler  der  italienischen  Renaissance 
spezialisiert  hatte.  Er  erweckt  bei  den 
Amerikanern  die  Liebe  zur  Kunst  des 
Nordens,  besonders  der  Hollander  und 
Flamen.  1908  schreibt  er  fur  die  "Klassiker 
der  Kunst"  die  erste  massgebende  Mono- 
graphic iiber  Rembrandt,  dem  1921  ein 
weiterer  Band  iiber  Frans  Hals  folgt. 
1914  schickt  ihn  das  Metropolitan  Museum 
auf  eine  Einkaufsreise  nach  Europa.  In 
Deutschland  wird  er  vom  Krieg  iiberrascht 
und  meldet  sich  zum  Heeresdienst  Sein 
Feldwebel  ist  der  Maler  Franz  Marc.  Die 
junge  deutsche  Kunst  begeistert  ihn.  Er 
tritt  fur  die  neue  Kiinstlergeneration  ein, 
sammelt  ihre  Werke,  schreibt  iiber  sie 
viele  Monographien  und  Zeitschriftenbei- 
trage. 

Die  deutschfeindliche  Einstellung  des 
Metropolitan  Museums  verzogert  seine 
Riickkehr    nach    dem    Krieg.    Als  eine 


36 


Geschichte  des  Museums  im  Druck 
erscheint,  ist  darin  seine  aufbauende 
Tatigkeit  nicht  mit  einem  Wort  erwahnt. 

Von  Deutschland  aus  wird  er  Berater  des 
Detroit  Institute  of  Art.  Er  kauft  fur  dieses 
Museum  den  ersten  Matisse  und  Bilder  von 
van  Gogh,  Degas,  Monet  usw.  Sein  Gesch- 
mack  ist  zum  grossen  Teil  verantwortlich 
fur  die  Kunsterziehung  der  amerikanischen 
Museen.  1923  veranstaltet  er  die  erste 
Schau  deutscher  Expressionisten  in  Amerika 
und  wirbt  die  ersten  Freunde  fur  die  neue 
deutsche  Kunst.  Von  1924 — 44  halt  er  die 
Direktorenstelle  des  Museums  in  Detroit 
inne  und  macht  dies  zu  einem  der  fort- 
schrittlichsten  Museen  des  Landes.  Grosse 
amerikanische  Sammler  lassen  von  ihm  ihre 
Kollektionen  katalogisieren.  Friihere  Zu- 
schreibungen  an  grosse  Kiinstlernamen 
werden  oft  korrigiert  zum  grossen  Leid- 
wesen  der  Besitzer.  Valentiners  Urteil  wird 
aber  als  endgiiltig  anerkannt.  Viele  Sam- 
mler lassen  sich  von  ihm  beraten  und 
kaufen  Kunstwerke,  die  sie  dann  den 
Museen  iibereignen.  Damit  hat  W.  R. 
Valentiner  wesentlich  zur  Bereicherung  des 
amerikanischen  Kunstgutes  beigetragen.  Er 
arrangiert  grosse  Ausstellungen,  die  das 
Wissen  um  die  Kunst  erweitern.  Rem- 
brandt, Frans  Hals,  hollandische  Genreund 
Landschaftsmalerei,  van  Dyck,  Rubens, 
italienische  Gotik-  und  Renaissance-Skulp- 
turen,  Leonardo  da  Vinci,  Rembrandt  und 
seine  Schiiler  sind  nur  einige  wenige 
Themen,  die  er  im  Verlaufe  seiner  Mu- 
seumskarriere  behandelt  hat. 

1926  kauft  er  als  erster  Werke  der 
prakolumbischen  und  der  Negerkunst  fur 
ein  amerikanisches  Kunstmuseum. 

Im  Alter  von  66  Jahren  geht  er  an  das 
Los  Angeles  County  Museum.  Gleichzeitig 
gibt  er  eine  Kunstzeitschrift  "Art  Quart- 


erly,,  heraus.  1951  beginnt  er  Kunstwerke 
fur  das  neu  zu  grundende  Museum  in 
Raleigh,  North  Carolina,  zu  sammeln.  1954 
wird  er  in  Santa  Monica,  Cal.,  Direktor 
des  Museums  von  Paul  Getty,  des  reichsten 
Olmagnaten  der  Welt.  Sparer  iibernimmt 
er  im  Alter  von  75  Jahren  die  Direktion 
des  North  Carolina  Museum  of  Art. 
Anlasslich  der  vielen  Neuerwerbungen  und 
der  Ausstellungen,  die  er  fur  die  ver- 
schiedenen  Museen  verwirklicht,  schreibt 
er  mehr  als  600  wisenschaftliche  Beitrage, 
die  in  den  Museumspublikationen,  in  Bu- 
chern  und  Zeitschriften  erscheinen.  1957 
erhalt  er  von  Bundesprasident  Heuss  das 
Verdienstkreuz  erster  Klasse.  1958  revidiert 
er  seinen  Rembrandt  fur  eine  Neuauflage 
in  den  Klassikern  der  Kunst.  Kurz  darauf 
stirbt  er  in  New  York  an  einer  Lungen- 
entziindung. 

So  endet  ein  erfolgreiches  und  arbeit- 
sames  Leben,  dem  durch  die  Gedachtni- 
sausstellung  in  Raleigh  ein  wiirdiger  Tribut 
gezollt  wird.  Um  seine  Tatigkeit  bildhaft 
in  Erscheinung  treten  zu  lassen,  hat  man 
eine  gigantische  Ausstellung  zusammenge- 
bracht.  Sie  besteht  aus  Leihgaben  all  der 
Museen,  die  er  durch  seine  Ankaufe  grosser 
Meisterwerke  bereichert  hat,  aus  Werken 
aus  Privatbesitz,  fur  deren  Ankauf  er 
verantwortlich  ist  und  die  letzten  Endes 
einmal  den  amerikanischen  Museen  zufallen 
werden,  dazu  kommt  noch  seine  eigene 
Sammlung  alter  und  moderner  Kunst,  di 
immer  wieder  seinen  untriiglichen  Gesch- 
mack  und  sein  Gefiihl  fur  hochste  Qualitat 
erkennen  lasst  und  die  sich  auf  viele  Gebiete 
erstreckt:  von  herrlichen  Rembrandtzeich- 
nungen,  persischen  Miniaturen,  Skulpturen 
von  Marcks,  Kolbe  und  Lehmbruck  bis  zu 
Gemalden  von  Nolde,  Rolfs,  Heckel  und 
Schmidt-Rottluff.  Neun  Portrats  von  Wil- 


37 


helm  Reinhold  Valentiner  zeugen  von 
einer  gewissen  Eitelkeit,  die  er  niemals 
ganz  unterdriicken  konnte. 

Anlasslich  dieser  Ausstellung  werden  dem 
Museum  in  Raleigh  zu  Ehren  von  W.  R. 
Valentiner  viele  Kunstwerke  geschenkt,  die 
den  Kern  dieser  jungen  Sammlung  wesent- 
lich  erweitern. 

Ein  schwerer  350  Seiten  umfassender 
Katalog  in  Quarto  enthalt  ca.  200  Illustra- 
tionen  und  Farbtafeln  sowie  einen  Teil  von 


Valentiners  Autobiographie,  die  seine  Ent- 
wicklung  und  Tatigkeit  zwischen  1890  und 
1920  behandelt.  Ferner  findet  man  darin 
einen  bisher  unveroffentlichten  Vortrag 
fiber  Rembrandt  und  Frans  Hals,  eine 
ausfuhrliche  Bibliographic  aller  seiner  Sch- 
riften,  sowie  eine  Wiirdigung  seines  Schaf- 
fens,  die  James  B.  Byrnes,  der  jetzige 
Direktor  des  Museums  geschrieben  hat. 

Reprint  from  DIE  WELTKUNST,  Munich, 
June  7959. 


38 


IN  MEMORIAM  W.  R.  VALENTINER 


LlONELLO  VENTURI 


Tragli  storici  dell'arte  della  mia  genera- 
zione  sara  sempre  ricordato  W.  R.  Valen- 
tiner,  un  celebrato  conoscitore  e  un  ricer- 
catore  infaticabile  soprattutto  nei  campi 
della  pittura  olandese  del  Seicento  e  della 
scultura  italiana  dal  Duecento  al  Cin- 
quecento. 

Nato  a  Karlsruhe  il  2  maggio  1880,  c 
morto  a  New  York  il  6  settembre  1958. 
Dopo  aver  studiato  alia  Universita  di 
Heidelberg,  divenne  assistente  di  Hofstede 
de  Groot  e  di  Bode.  Nel  1908  lascib  la 
Germania  per  New  York  per  divenire 
"curator"  delle  arti  decorative  nel  Metro- 
politan Museum.  Trovandosi  in  Germania 
nel  1914,  partecipb  alia  guerra,  e  torno 
negli  Stati  Uniti  nel  1921.  Consigliere  e 
poi  direttore  del  museo  di  Detroit  sino  al 
1944,  creb  non  solo  uno  dei  maggiori 
musei  d'America,  ma  una  serie  di  collezioni 
famose  come  quella  dei  Ford,  dei  Fisher 
etc.  Lasciata  Detroit  fu  chiamato  come 
consigliere  al  Los  Angeles  County  Museum 
dal  1946  al  1954,  e  come  direttore  del  North 


Carolina  Museum  dal  1955  alia  morte. 

Si  pub  dire  che  ovunque  Valentiner  si 
fermava  un  nuovo  museo  sorgeva.  In- 
numerevoli  furono  le  esposizioni  da  lui 
organizzate  fra  cui  nel  1939  la  grande 
mostra  dei  capolavori  nella  New  York 
World  Fair.  E  numerosi  furono  i  suoi  libri 
su  Rembrandt,  Pieter  de  Hooch,  Franz 
Hals,  etc.  Le  ricerche  sulla  scultura  italiana 
sono  state  forse  la  maggior  passione  di 
Valentiner  negli  ultimi  anni  e  Commentari 
ricorda  con  riconoscenza  il  suo  Simone 
Talenti  scultore  pubblicato  nel  1957.  Uomo 
di  grande  bonta,  di  una  cultura  vastissima, 
pronto  a  capire  l'arte  moderna  (e  sulla 
scultura  pubblicb  anche  una  assai  notevole 
teoria  —  Origins  of  Modern  Sculpture  —  nel 
1946),  un  ricercatore  nato,  ingenuo  e 
proveno,  Valentiner  e  stato  una  delle 
personality  che  piu  hanno  onorato  la  storia 
delTarte  negli  ultimi  cinquanta  anni. 

Reprint  from  COMMENTARI,  Rome,  Oc- 
tober-December 1958. 


39 


IN  MEMORIAM 

By  Germain  Seligman 


It  was  when  I  accompanied  my  father  to 
the  United  States  for  the  first  time,  in  the 
winter  of  1913-1914,  that  I  met  Dr.  Wil- 
liam R.  Valentiner  at  the  Metropolitan 
Museum.  He  and  other  curators  of  the 
museum  were  all  hard  at  work  at  the  task 
of  unpacking  and  cataloguing  the  contents 
of  the  more  than  three  hundred  and  fifty 
cases  of  works  of  art  from  the  collection 
of  the  late  J.  Pierpont  Morgan  which  my 
father  had  recently  dispatched  to  America 
just  before  the  death  of  the  great  collector. 

William  Valentiner,  as  he  looked  then, 
is  still  fresh  in  my  memory,  as  he  handled 
the  beautiful  objects  and  discussed  them 
eagerly  with  my  father,  through  whose 
hands  so  many  of  them  had  passed.  Tall, 
erect,  and  slim,  with  a  trick  of  throwing 
back  his  head  as  though  looking  down  from 
a  height;  he  was  a  man  who  changed  little 
in  physical  appearance  over  the  passing 
years. 

I  did  not  see  him  again  until  some  time 
in  the  "twenties,"  and  meantime  much  had 
happened  to  both  of  us;  World  War  I  had 
called  me  to  the  colors  of  France  and  Wil- 
liam to  the  colors  of  Germany.  Now  we 
were  both  back  in  New  York;  he,  among 
other  occupations,  working  on  the  cata- 
logues of  two  great  collections,  the  Joseph  E. 
Widener  and  the  Clarence  H.  Mackay  and 
I  going  about  the  business  of  the  firm.  This 
second  encounter  was  perforce  somewhat 
lacking  in  warmth,  as  it  was  difficult  for 
each  of  us  to  ignore  the  fact  that  not  long 
before  we  had  been  on  opposite  sides  of  a 
bitter  international  struggle.  And  it  was 


here  that  I  first  learned  to  appreciate  the 
human  qualities  of  Dr.  Valentiner.  Now 
the  slightly  older  man,  noticing  my  reserve, 
went  out  of  his  way  to  demonstrate  to  me 
that  art  is  an  international  world  with  no 
frontiers,  that  in  discussing  the  works  of 
art  which  we  both  loved  we  were  speaking 
the  same  international  language  and  could 
forget  a  past  in  which  we  had  been  en- 
gulfed. 

Subsequently  he  was  appointed  to  the 
Directorship  of  the  Detroit  Institute  of 
Arts,  and  in  the  twenty-odd  years  of  his 
tenure  guided  it  successfully  toward  the 
great  museum  it  has  become.  It  was  one 
of  his  gifts — apparent  not  only  there  but 
later  at  the  Los  Angeles  Museum,  at  the 
Getty  Museum,  and  at  the  North  Carolina 
Museum — to  be  able  to  create  intense 
aesthetic  activity  wherever  he  went. 
Through  his  personality  and  his  dynamism, 
this  man  of  wide  knowledge  and  perception 
awakened  in  others  the  realization  as  to 
what  these  centers  of  art  and  education 
could  and  would  mean  in  their  lives,  and 
he  spurred  their  civic  pride  into  aiding  him 
in  a  task  which  he  viewed  almost  as  a 
mission. 

To  me  the  greatest  quality  of  William 
Valentiner  as  a  museum  official  was  his 
immediate,  almost  instantaneous  reaction 
to  a  work  of  art,  as  though  speechless  he 
did  hear  its  voice  which  stimulated  an 
immediate  communion.  But  he  never  tried 
to  please  by  admiring  everything  shown 
him — he  was  as  quick  to  condemn  as  he 
was  to  praise.  I  recall  vividly  an  encounter 


40 


with  him  in  Vienna,  probably  about  1925 
or  1926.  By  a  series  of  extraordinary  cir- 
cumstances, I  had  just  acquired  a  very 
small,  beautifully  chiseled  bronze  Venus, 
with  a  patina  so  exquisite  that  it  shone 
like  gold,  and  I  was  excited  by  the  possi- 
bility (later  confirmed)  of  an  attribution 
to  Benvenuto  Cellini.  Still  full  of  the  thrill 
of  such  a  fascinating  discovery,  I  ran  into 
William  on  the  street  and  he,  of  course, 
immediately  inquired  whether  my  visit  to 
Vienna  had  been  fruitful.  When  I  told 
him  of  my  find,  nothing  would  do  but  that 
he  cancel  the  appointment  to  which  he 
was  headed  and  accompany  me  immedi- 
ately to  my  hotel — now  at  once.  There  he 
took  the  shimmering  little  object  in  his 
hands,  caressed  it  as  though  it  were  some- 
thing alive,  and  before  he  left  asked  me  to 
reserve  it  for  his  museum. 

This,  unfortunately,  was  not  possible, 
for  a  Viennese  collector  had  already  asked 
for  the  first  refusal,  although  he  had  not 
yet  definitely  decided  to  buy  it.  When  he 
did  and  I  broke  the  news  to  William  the 
following  day,  it  was  almost  as  if  I  had  told 
him  of  the  death  of  a  close  friend !  What  a 
pity  it  is  that  I  had  not  met  him  a  few 
hours  earlier,  for  the  lovely  Venus  would 
now  be  in  the  Detroit  Museum,  available 
for  all  to  see  and  admire — instead  it  was 
looted  during  the  second  World  War,  and 
its  whereabouts  today  are  unknown. 

I  had  many  such  meetings  with  this 
charming  friend  in  Europe,  for  if  we  saw 
one  another  frequently  in  the  States,  we 
were  both  perforce  limited  in  time.  But 
in  Europe  he  was  relaxed;  we  could  lunch 
and  dine  at  leisure,  time  was  no  longer  of 
the  essence,  exhibitions  could  be  visited, 
art  theories  discussed  and  argued.  The 
last  time  I  had  such  an  enjoyment  was 


just  a  few  weeks  before  William's  death, 
in  the  early  days  of  May,  1958.  We  had 
agreed  before  leaving  New  York  to  meet 
in  Paris  for  the  express  purpose  of  visiting 
together  an  exhibition  of  French  seven- 
teenth century  art  which  he  was  anxious 
to  study,  as  it  was  a  field  of  which  there 
are  few  examples  on  this  side  of  the  ocean — 
and  he  was  as  keen  as  a  young  scholar  to 
complete  his  knowledge  of  this  particular 
period  of  art  about  which  so  much  is  still 
unknown.  Twice  we  went  together  to  visit 
this  impressive  collection,  and  with  the 
modesty  and  simplicity  of  the  truly  learned 
he  thanked  me  for  having  given  him  an 
opportunity  to  study  a  field  with  which 
he  admitted  he  was  not  particularly  fa- 
miliar, but  which  appealed  to  him  greatly. 

Though  Dr.  Valentiner  was  usually 
thought  of  first  as  an  expert  in  Dutch 
painting — a  field  in  which  he  had  published 
widely — it  was  particularly  a  mutual  love 
for  Italian  sculpture  that  drew  us  closer 
to  one  another.  Many  years  back  he  had 
already  written  Origins  of  Modern  Sail 7 pure 
which  gave  us  then  occasions  for  lengthy 
talks,  and  it  is  my  fervent  hope  that  his 
many  remarkable  studies,  unfortunately 
dispersed  throughout  the  Western  world 
in  the  form  of  articles  appearing  in  art 
magazines  in  English,  Italian,  German, 
and  French,  will  some  day  be  brought 
together.  Even  his  fellow  art  historians,  I 
feel  certain,  will  be  suprised  at  the  im- 
portance of  the  role  that  Italian  sculpture 
played  in  the  life  of  William  Valentiner. 

And  when  we  last  met  in  Paris,  he  was 
starting  in  a  new  direction — toward  French 
sculpture  of  the  Renaissance,  and  was  in  the 
process  of  getting  the  necessary  authoriza- 
tions from  French  officials  to  photograph 
certain  monuments  which  he  considered 


41 


essential  starting  points  for  this  new  en- 
deavor. He  spoke  of  the  difficulties  involved 
in  such  photography,  often  calling  for  the 
building  of  special  scaffoldings,  as  he  had 
had  to  do  in  some  of  the  Italian  churches, 
in  order  to  get  at  the  details  of  sculptures 
perched  way  up  on  portals  or  pillars  — 
details  necessary  to  prove  some  theory 
which  he  had  taken  to  heart. 

His  visual  memory  was  truly  phenomenal, 
as  I  had  good  reason  to  know.  To  cite  but 
one  example,  when  he  first  saw  the  group 
of  marbles — the  majority  of  them  unpub- 
lished and  unidentified — which  I  had  just 
acquired  from  Prince  Liechtenstein's  col- 
lection, he  pointed  at  once  to  an  Angel  of 
the  Annunciation  and  said,  "You  know,  of 
course,  that  this  completes  the  group  al- 
ready here  in  a  private  collection.  .  .  ." 
Well,  of  course,  I  did  not  know  it,  but  his 
memory  of  the  figures  in  question  had 
been  precise;  a  comparison  of  this  charm- 
ing Angel  with  the  rest  of  the  group  left 
no  doubt. 

Of  two  others,  he  said  with  no  hesitancy 


whatever,  "Those  are  by  Bonino  da  Cam-  | 
pione.  .  .  ."  Seeing  the  amazement  on  my 
face,  he  added,  "I  can  prove  it;  you  have 
only  to  compare  them  to  the  figures  on 
the  tomb  of  Folchino  de'  Schizzi  in  Cre-  l 
mone."  Not  only  was  his  proof  convincing 
when  he  produced  the  photograph,  but  nl 
his  was  the  only  photograph  in  the  United 
States,  as  far  as  I  could  ascertain,  of  this  as 
famous  tomb;  not  only  that,  but  he  knew  ^ 
exactly  where  in  his  file  to  lay  his  hand  ij, 
on  it! 

His  last  book,  Rembrandt  and  Spinoza,  re- 
veals still  another  vista  in  the  vast  horizons 
over  which  his  mind  ranged.  In  so  sensitive 
and  at  the  same  time  so  direct  a  style,  it 
is  the  work  of  a  thinker,  even  of  a  phi-  ,  c 
losopher.  and  one  wonders  in  retrospect  a 
whether  there  is  not  in  it  the  premonition 
of  a  life  whose  course  was  ebbing. 

In  William  Valentiner  I  mourn  not 
only  a  dear  friend,  but  a  man  to  whom  I 
am  greatly  indebted  for  the  enrichment  of 
my  fields  of  personal  enjoyment. 


42 


GIFTS  PRESENTED  TO  NORTH  CAROLINA  MUSEUM  OF  ART 
IN  MEMORY  OF  W.  R.  VALENTINER 


All  items  listed  below  were  included  in 
the  "Valentiner  Memorial  Exhibition"  and 
the  catalogue,  Masterpieces  of  Art  (catalogue 
number  indicated  where  applicable),  with 
the  exception  of  those  marked  with  an 
asterisk;  these  items  were  received  after 
the  exhibition  opened  and  are  being  pub- 
lished for  the  first  time. 

American  Painting 

*  Montenegro,  Enrique  (born  1917). 
"Tablescape  With  Telephone.'1  Oil  on 
canvas,  h:503-2>  w:43  inches.  Gift  of  the 
artist,  Austin,  Texas  (G. 59.1 4.1). 


Montenegro,  Enrique  (American,  born  1917). 
Tablescape  With  Telephone.  Oil  on  canvas, 
503^2  x  43  inches.  Gift  of  the  artist. 


*  Haseltine,  William  Stanley  (1835- 
1900).  "Torre  Degli  Schiavi,  Campagna 
Romana,  1856."  Oil  on  canvas,  h:13%, 
w:19J2  inches.  Gift  of  Mrs.  Roger  H. 
Plowden,  London,  England  (G. 59.16.1). 

Ewing,  Edgar  (born  1913).  "Blue  Bar- 


Lebrun,  Rico  (American,  born  1900).  Figures. 
Oil  on  canvas,  84  x  45  inches.  Gift  of  the  artist. 


43 


becue."  Oil  on  board,  h:16%,  w:37  inches. 
Exhib.:  "Ill  Biennial  of  the  Museum  of 
Modern  Art  of  Sao  Paulo,"  Brazil,  1955. 
Lit.:  Cat.  203.  Gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Dalzell  Hatfield  and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Edgar 
Ewing,  Los  Angeles,  California  (G. 59. 17.1). 

Feininger,  Lyonel  (1871-1956).  "Fac- 
tory." Water  color,  hilO^,  w:193^  inches. 
Signed,  lower  left.  Coll.:  Mrs.  Lyonel 
Feininger,  New  York.  Lit.:  Cat.  163.  Gift 
of  Mrs.  Lyonel  Feininger,  New  York 
(G.59.23.1). 

*Lebrun,  Rico  (born  1900).  "Figures." 
Oil  on  canvas,  h:84,  w:45  inches.  Gift  of 
the  artist,  Hartford,  Connecticut  (G.59. 
28.1). 


European  Painting 

Lely,  Peter  (English,  1618-1680). 
"Duchess  of  Cleveland."  Canvas,  h:50, 
w:40  inches.  Coll.:  Sir  T.  Lennard;  Scott 
and  Fowles,  New  York,  No.  597.  Exhib.: 
Museum  and  Art  Gallery  at  Birmingham, 
England.  Lit.:  Cat.  97.  Gift  of  Dalzell 
Hatfield  Galleries,  Los  Angeles,  California, 
and  Van  Diemen-Lilienfeld  Galleries,  New 
York  (G.59. 18.1). 

*  Brabazon,  Hercules  B.  (English,  1821- 
1906).  "Venetian  Scene."  Water  color, 
h:63^2,  w:9%  inches.  Signed,  lower  right. 
Gift  of  Mr.  Rudolf  Holzapfel,  Dublin, 
Ireland  (G.59. 24.1). 

*  Brabazon,  Hercules  B.  (English,  1821- 


Feininger,  Lyonel  (American,  1871-1956).  Factory.  Water  color,  lO^  x  19^  inches.  Gift  of  Mrs. 
Lyonel  Feininger,  New  York. 


44 


Eve,  Jean  (French,  born  1900).  Wash  House.  Oil  on  canvas,  20  x  26  inches.  Gift  of  Dr.  and  Mrs. 
Paul  Wescher,  Santa  Monica. 


1906).  "Lake  Scene."  Water  color,  h:9V8, 
w:6^8  inches.  Signed,  lower  right.  Gift  of 
Mr.  Rudolf  Holzapfel,  Dublin,  Ireland 
(G.59.24.2). 

Boudin,  Eugene  (French,  1824-1898). 
"Beach  Scene  in  Normandy."  Canvas, 
h:10^g,  w:\6l4  inches.  Signed  and  dated, 
lower  left:  "E.  Boudin  84."  Lit.:  Cat.  115. 
Anonymous  gift  (former  loan)  (GL. 58. 17.1). 

Hosiasson,  Philippe  (French,  born  1898). 
"Noeud."  Oil  on  canvas,  h:57j^,  w:45 
inches.    Lit.:    Cat.    126.    Gift    of  Mr. 


Samuel  M.  Kootz,  New  York  (G. 59. 7.1). 

Serpan,  Saroslav  (French,  born  1922). 
"Ogaliuf."  Oil  on  canvas,  h:45,  w:573^ 
inches.  Lit.:  Cat.  127.  Gift  of  Mr. 
Samuel  M.  Kootz,  New  York  (G.59.7.2). 

Bombois,  Camille  (French,  born  1883). 
"Country  Landscape."  Oil  on  canvas, 
h:\0H,  w:\5H  inches.  Lit.:  Cat.  120. 
Gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Albert  Lewin,  New 
York  (G.59.9.1). 

*  Eve,  Jean  (French,  born  1900).  "Wash 
House."  Oil  on  canvas,  h:20,  w:26  inches. 


45 


Pannini,  Giovanni  Paolo  (Italian,  1691  /2-1765). 
Interior  of  St.  Peter's  Cathedral  in  Rome.  Oil  on 
canvas,  5034  x  403/2  inches.  Gift  of  Dr.  and 
Mrs.  Hans  S.  Schaeffer,  New  York. 

Signed  and  dated,  lower  right:  "Jean  Eve 
1929."  Gift  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Paul  Wescher, 
Santa  Monica,   California   (G. 58. 27.1). 

Utrillo,  Maurice  (French,  1883-1955). 
"Eglise  de  Leynes."  Oil  on  canvas,  h:20, 
w:24  inches.  Signed,  lower  right:  "Maurice, 
Utrillo,  V."  Gift  (former  loan)  of  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  S.  J.  Levin,  St.  Louis,  Missouri 
(GL.58.8.7). 

Robusti,  Jacopo  [called  Tintoretto]  (Ita- 
lian, 1518-1594).  "The  Forge  of  Vulcan." 
Canvas,  h:30^,  w:52^2  inches.  Coll.: 
Friedlander-Fuld,  to  1919;  S.  Ogdan  Stein- 
hardt,  Paris.  Exhib.:  Kaiser-Friedrich-Mu- 
seums-Verein,  Akademie  der  Kiinste,  1925 
(Cat.  397).  Lit.:  Cat.  35.  Gift  (former  loan) 
of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  W.  Lunsford  Long, 
Warrenton  (GL.56.1 5.2). 


Attributed  to  Callari,  Paolo  [called 
Veronese]  (Italian,  1528-1588).  "Portrait 
of  Francesco  Rovellius  of  Bergamo."  Oil 
on  canvas,  h:41,  w:34  inches.  Lit.:  Cat.  34. 
Gift  of  Thomas  Agnew  and  Sons,  Ltd., 
London,  England  (G.59.11.1). 

*  Pannini,  Giovanni  Paolo  (Italian, 
1691/2-1765).  "Interior  of  St.  Peter's  Ca- 
thedral in  Rome."  Oil  on  canvas,  h:50}4, 
w:403^  inches.  Gift  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Hans  S. 
Schaeffer,  New  York  (G. 59.1 9.1). 

Sculpture 

French,  14th  century.  "Madonna  and 
Child."  Ivory,  h:llM  inches.  Coll.:  Emile 
Baboin.  Exhib.:  "Mother  and  Child  Theme 
in  Art,"  North  Carolina  Museum  of  Art, 
1957.  Lit.:  Raymond  Koechlin,  "La  Vierge 
et  L'Enfant,"  in  Emile  Baboin  Catalogue 
(Cat.  23);  Cat.  99.  Gift  of  Mrs.  Edsel  B. 
Ford,  Detroit,  Michigan  (G. 59. 6.1). 

*  Caparn,  Rhys  (American,  contempor- 
ary). "Rearing  Horse."  Bronze,  h:15, 
w:6  inches.  Gift  of  Miss  Doris  Meltzer, 
New  York  (G.59.10.1). 

Decorative  Arts  and  Others 

Italian,  16th  century.  Paneled  Room. 
Said  to  have  come  from  San  Donato 
Palace  (built  by  de  Medici  family),  Flor- 
ence, Italy.  H:8  feet  10  inches,  w:20  feet, 
1:28  feet.  Coll.:  Mrs.  Payne  Whitney,  New 
York;  Dr.  Armand  Hammer,  New  York. 
Gift  of  Dr.  Armand  Hammer,  New  York 
(G.58.26.1). 

French  (School  of  Normandy),  16th 
century.  Chest.  Wood,  h:393^,  w:53K 
inches.  Coll.:  Brady  Collection.  Lit.:  Cat. 
100.  Gift  of  Mr.  R.  Stora,  New  York 
(G.59.5.1). 

Italian  (Venetian),  17th  century.  Chair. 


46 


Johnston,  Ynez  (American,  born  1920).  Prince  of  Aquitaine.  Chalk  and  ink  drawing,  10%  x  15 
inches.  Gift  of  the  artist. 


Wood,  seat  and  back  covered  in  leather, 
h:60,  w:25^2  inches.  Lit.:  Cat.  24.  Gift  of 
Mr.  R.  Stora,  New  York  (G.59.5.2). 

Graphics 

*  Anonymous  Master  (early  sixteenth 
century),  Engraving.  Dated  1502,  h:3%, 
w:2%  inches.  Gift  of  Mr.  J.  B.  Neumann, 
New  York  (G.59.20.1). 

Johnston,  Ynez  (American,  born  1920). 
"Prince  of  Aquitaine."  Chalk  and  ink 
drawing,  h:\0%,  w:15  inches.  Lit.:  Cat. 


197.  Gift  of  the  artist,  Santa  Monica, 
California  (G. 59. 12.1). 

*DeJong,  Gerber  (Dutch,  born  1886). 
"Landscape."  Etching,  h:73§,  w:6  inches. 
Gift  of  Dr.  Maria  Elisabeth  Houtzager, 
Utrecht,  Holland  (G.59.21.1). 

Breughel,  Jan,  the  Elder  (Flemish,  1568- 
1625).  "Sketches  of  Cattle  and  Farmers." 
Pen  and  water  color,  h:6^2,  w:9%  inches. 
Lit.:  Cat.  49.  Gift  of  Mr.  Julius  Bohler, 
Munich,  Germany  (G. 59. 4.1). 

Maryan,  G.  F.  (French,  contemporary). 
Lithograph     (103/300).     H:\2H,  w:10 


47 


inches.  Lit.:  Cat.  128.  Gift  of  Galerie  de 
France,  Paris  (G.59.13.1). 

Maryan,  G.  F.  (French,  contemporary). 
Lithograph  (96/120).  H:26,  w:20  inches. 
Lit.:  128.  Gift  of  Galerie  de  France,  Paris 
(G.59.13.2). 

Morelli,  Carlo  (Italian,  16th  century). 
"Anatomical  and  Drapery  Drawing." 
Crayon  with  tempera  or  gouache  high- 
lights, h:10%,  w:7i2  inches.  Lit.:  Cat.  41. 
Gift  of  Mr.  T.  Gilbert  Brouillette,  Staten 
Island,  New  York  (G.59.15.1). 

Music,  Antonio  (Italian,  born  1909). 
Etching  (27/75).  H:20,  w:26  inches.  Lit.: 
129.  Gift  of  Galerie  de  France,  Paris 
(G.59.13.3). 

Music,  Antonio  (Italian,  born  1909). 
Etching  (23/35).  H:20,  w:26  inches.  Lit.: 
Cat.  129.  Gift  of  Galerie  de  France,  Paris 
(G.59.13.4). 

Music,  Antonio  (Italian,  born  1909). 
Etching  (30/75).  H:26,  w:20  inches.  Lit.: 
Cat.  129.  Gift  of  Galeire  de  France,  Paris 
(G.59.13.5). 

Attributed  to  Palma,  Jacopo  (Italian, 
1544-1628).  "The  Harrowing  of  Hell." 
Red  chalk,  pen  and  bistre.  Inscribed  lower 
left:  "da  Palma."  H:8K,  w:llM  inches. 
Lit.:  Cat.  42.  Gift  of  Mr.  Germain  Selig- 
man,  New  York  (G.59.8.1). 

*  Orsi,  Lelio  (Italian,  1511-1587).  Draw- 
ing. Water  color,  wash  and  ink,  h:l  1  w:9 


Orsi,  Lelio  (Italian,  1511-1587).  Drawing.  lt 
Water  color,  wash  and  ink,  11^  x  9  inches.  \ 
Gift  of  Mr.  D.  H.  Cevat,  London. 

n 

I1 
( 
ii 
t 

inches.  Gift  of  Mr.  D.  H.  Cevat,  London,  \ 
England  (G. 59. 22.1). 

*  Spanish,  17th  century.  Illumination 
Cut  from  Canticle.  H:10?^,  w:83^  inches. 
Gift  of  Mr.  J.  B.  Neumann,  New  York 
(G.59.20.2). 


48 


APPENDIX 


(Translatic 

PLIETZSCH  ARTICLE 

Born  at  Karlsruhe  in  1880,  Wilhelm  Reinhold 
I  Valentiner  comes  from  an  old  family  of  scientists.  He 
grew  up  in  Heidelberg,  where  his  father  was  teaching 
at  the  University,  as  well  as  being  director  of  the  observa- 
tory. At  Heidelberg  W.  R.  Valentiner  completed  his 
Ph.D.  with  a  dissertation:  "Rembrandt  auf  der  Latein- 
schule."  His  teacher  was  Henry  Thode.  Even  as  a  young 
student  he  evinced  not  only  ability,  but  a  charming 
personality;  everybody  loved  him,  and  people  in 
Heidelberg,  especially  at  the  art  museum,  talked  of  him 
in  years  to  come  with  the  greatest  respect.  The  same 
thing  happened  afterwards  in  Holland,  where,  in  The 
Hague,  he  became  assistant  to  Hofstede  de  Groot  and 
worked  on  the  first  volume  of  the  latter's  catalogues. 
Later  in  Berlin  it  was  the  same  story  in  the  museums 
where  he  worked.  When  Reiner  Maria  Rilke,  after 
meeting  him  for  the  first  time,  wrote  "To  see  you  again 
would  be  my  greatest  pleasure — and  to  look  you  up 
in  Berlin  will  be  one  of  the  first  and  most  enjoyable 
things  I  am  going  to  do  on  coming  to  Berlin."  Rilke, 
usually  very  polite,  meant  wholeheartedly  what  he 
wrote.  Just  one  example  of  Valentiner's  fascinating 
personality:  at  Berlin  he  was  introduced  to  the  great 
Japanese  art  collector  Matsuka,  and  they  conversed 
for  a  short  while.  Talking  to  Valentiner,  Matuska  was 
so  delighted  with  him  as  a  human  being  as  well  as  with 
his  clarity  of  thinking  and  judgement,  that  he  immedi- 
ately invited  him  to  come  to  Japan  to  be  his  guest 
there,  an  invitation  which,  having  other  obligations, 
Valentiner  was  unable  to  accept. 

Already,  when  he  was  28  years  of  age,  Bode  had 
recommended  him  as  curator  for  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant museums  of  America,  the  Metropolitan  Museum. 
Oddly,  he  was  not  to  have  charge  of  the  picture  gallery, 
in  spite  of  his  being  already  known  for  his  great  knowl- 
edge of  paintings  through  his  dissertation  on  Rem- 
brandt. He  was  hired  to  head  the  section  on  decorative 
art,  which  on  second  thought  is  not  surprising,  as  shortly 
after  having  finished  his  studies  at  the  University  he 
had  edited  a  catalogue  about  Spanish-Moorish  Faience 
of  the  Beit  Collection,  London  1906.  It  must  be  said  of 
Valentiner  that  he  was  an  expert,  not  only  on  Dutch 
painting,  but  on  nearly  everything  in  the  realm  of  art, 
following  the  example  of  his  teacher  and  model,  Bode, 
working  scientifically  on  the  most  heterogenous  things, 
as  a  kind  of  "universalist."  He  was  not  interested  in 
studying  only  primitive  Dutch  artists,  Italian  sculpture, 
oriental  carpets,  but  in  many  other  things.  He  was 
always — even  as  an  old  man — a  fervent  admirer  of 
modern  art,  fighting  enthusiastically  for  its  recognition. 
He  fostered  the  German  Expressionists  in  America  at 
a  time  when  he  had  to  fear  great  disapproval. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  war  (1914),  Valentiner  was 
on  a  vacation  trip  in  Germany.  He  enlisted  voluntarily 
and  by  strange  coincidence  his  instructing  officer  was 
Franz  Marc.  In  his  letters,  "Letters  from  the  Front 
Line,"  Franz  Marc  tells  his  wife:  "Valentiner  (his 
name  was  misspelled)  is  a  fine,  highly  educated  fellow 
and  it  is  a  blessing  to  be  in  touch  with  him." 

After  1918  it  was  impossible  to  start  immediately  to 
work  at  the  Metropolitan  Museum  again,  in  spite  of 


of  Articles) 

the  fact  that  the  Americans,  in  a  surprisingly  short 
time,  tried  to  pick  up  the  interrupted  relationship 
where  they  had  left  off.  He  then  lived  as  a  private 
scholar  in  Berlin  for  several  years,  went  on  long  edu- 
cational treks  as  an  explorer  of  art  around  Europe,  and 
was  called  several  times  to  America  as  an  art  expert. 
His  most  important  scholarly  works  are  about  Dutch 
painting,  especially  about  Rembrandt.  In  1907  he 
published  a  revised  volume  of  the  complete  works  of 
Rembrandt  in  an  issue  of  hlassiker  der  Kunst.  Volumes 
on  Frans  Hals  and  Pieter  de  Hooch  followed,  and  later 
one  on  the  sketches  of  Rembrandt,  of  which  unfortu- 
nately only  two  volumes,  albeit  very  large  and  complete 
ones,  were  printed,  until  recently.  He  also  published 
several  smaller  works,  including  essays  about  Dutch 
paintings,  in  German,  American,  Dutch  and  English 
magazines,  and  was  co-editor  of  the  American  journal 
Art  in  America,  later  changed  to  The  Art  Quarterly. 

Whoever  had  the  opportunity  to  work  with  Valentiner 
on  an  art  publication  of  any  size  was  fascinated  again 
and  again  at  the  originality  of  his  ideas  and  the  clearness 
of  his  judgement  at  any  discussion  about  the  work  in 
question,  and  at  the  constructive  talent  he  possessed, 
sometimes  quite  bold  but  always  clever.  Some  of  his 
more  rash  attributions  did  not  last  upon  later  testing, 
and  when  he  published  an  account  of  newly-found 
Rembrandt  sketches  (1922)  he  was  so  vehemently 
attacked  that  even  with  the  help  of  Hofstede  de  Groot, 
he  had  difficulty  in  defending  himself — a  distasteful 
task  for  a  quiet  scholar  who  much  preferred  a  peaceful 
way  of  life  to  a  battle.  As  he  had  to  sit  in  judgemen  t 
over  nearly  every  painting,  found  in  America  or  in 
Europe,  which  bore  even  a  slight  resemblance  to  a 
Rembrandt,  it  is  only  too  understandable  that  in  some 
rare  cases  his  enthusiasm  to  "discover"  got  the  better 
of  him.  But  this  book,  in  which  for  the  first  time  Valen- 
tiner could  publish  numerous,  and  doubtless  genuine, 
Rembrandts,  was  of  great  value  in  another  way  as  well, 
in  that  some  doubtful,  problematic  paintings  were 
brought  to  discussion,  and  became  useful  as  "raw 
material"  open  to  discussion,  valuable  for  art  science. 

In  1924  Valentiner  became  Director  of  the  Museum 
of  Art  at  Detroit.  The  museum  was  built  during  Valen- 
tiner's tenure.  After  a  few  years  he  returned  to  Berlin, 
but  soon  went  back  to  America,  where  he  was  for  many 
years  Director  of  the  Museum  at  Los  Angeles,  and  since 
1955  at  Raleigh,  North  Carolina. 

Last  spring  when  Valentiner  arrived  in  Paris  for  his 
annual  European  vacation  (hardly  ever  a  real  vacation 
because  of  the  many  requests  for  his  professional 
opinion),  I  wrote  him  a  letter  telling  him  that,  at  least 
this  time,  he  should  completely  relax  and  at  last  com- 
plete his  memoirs,  known  only  in  fragments  until  then. 
In  a  hasty  scrawl  showing  over-exertion,  his  answer 
came:  "My  memoirs  are  still  very  fragmentary;  only 
God  knows  how  far  I  will  get  with  them."  Unfortunately 
Fate  stepped  in.  At  the  beginning  of  September,  at  the 
age  of  78,  he  died  in  New  York,  after  having  been  very 
sick  in  Munich.  It  is  deeply  regrettable  that  his  auto- 
biography with  all  the  recollections  of  his  activity  at 
the  museums  of  Berlin,  New  York,  Detroit,  Los  Angeles 
and  Raleigh  during  half  a  century  was  never  written, 


49 


that  all  his  knowledge  of  an  international  art  dealing 
career  spanning  a  decade  was  never  revealed,  and  that 
his  meetings  with  the  most  important  scholars,  artists, 
collectors  and  all  kinds  of  fascinating  personalities  from 
all  over  the  world  were  never  described. 

Everyone  who  knew  Valentiner  from  his  youth  on 
will  think  of  him  always  as  one  of  the  kindest,  most 
enchanting,  charitable  and  lovable  persons  imaginable. 
But  had  that  valuable  document  for  art,  history,  and 
culture,  his  memoirs,  been  written,  those  who  did  not 
know  him  well  and  personally  would  have  had  oppor- 
tunity to  discover  for  themselves  what  a  fine,  noble, 
and  genuine  personality  this  Wilhelm  R.  Valentiner 
had  been.  G.  F. 

WINKLER  ARTICLE 

W.  R.  Valentiner,  coming  back  to  New  York  from  a 
long  trip  to  Europe  at  the  beginning  of  September 
1958,  died  there  at  the  age  of  78  years.  He  had  been 
down  with  a  serious  heart  attack  in  June,  during  his 
stay  in  Munich,  but  as  always,  this  had  not  affected 
him  spiritually.  He  said  there  was  still  some  unfinished 
business  he  had  to  attend  to,  and  people  believed  in  his 
optimism,  as  they  were  used  to  believing  in  anything 
he  said;  they  had  seen  Valentiner  wrestle  successfully 
with  difficulties  of  all  kinds  through  all  the  ups  and 
downs  of  a  somewhat  turbulent  half  century.  He  had 
never  made  much  of  it.  This  was  not  in  his  nature.  He 
had  taken  the  ups  and  downs  of  his  own  life  and  fate, 
the  good  and  the  bad  as  it  came  along,  and  he  never 
stopped  concentrating  on  his  main  interest  in  life: 
scientific  research  and  the  planning  of  museums,  work- 
ing with  the  most  admirable  tenacity  at  the  realism 
of  his  ideas  and  at  the  overcoming  and  solving  of  all  the 
problems  as  they  turned  up  daily.  At  an  age  when  most 
retire,  he  became  Director  of  the  Museum  at  Raleigh, 
N.  C,  which  in  the  history  of  museums  in  the  U.  S.  A. 
had  been  the  first  public  museum,  founded  exclusively 
by  and  entertained  by  public  means  of  the  State.  He 
intended  to  add  to  it  a  collection  of  sculpture,  including 
the  most  ancient  art  as  well  as  the  modern  works  of  our 
time.  The  museum  had  a  very  good  collection  of  paint- 
ings of  all  periods  when  Valentiner  took  over.  He 
eliminated  a  few  errors  and  replaced  them  by  inportant 
individual  works  of  art,  among  them  Rembrandt's 
"Die  Wut  des  Ahasver"  (The  Wrath  of  Ahasuerus)  *, 
which  may  be  one  of  the  most  important,  if  not  the 
most  important  of  the  early  Rembrandts,  and  Sephan 
Lochner's  "Hieronymus"  (Saint  Jerome),  a  delightful 
early  work  of  this  master,  taken  from  the  art  collection 
of  R.  v.  Schwitzler,  Cologne. 

These  were  Valentiner's  last  deeds.  Previously  he 
had  been  working  for  the  County  Museum  (Los  Angeles) 
and  for  the  Getty  Museum  (California).  But  it  is  the 
Detroit  Museum,  which  throughout  a  decade  after 
World  War  I  he  supplied  with  a  vast  collection  of 
famous  paintings  and  sculptures,  which  owes  its  im- 
portance to  him.  Apart  from  the  Jan  van  Eycks,  Davids, 
Breugels,  etc.,  the  Dutch  17th  century  painters  are 
represented  in  a  surprisingly  abundant  and  complete 
manner — this  in  addition  to  a  very  impressive  collection 
of  Italian  masterworks:  Titian,  Correggio,  Renaissance 
sculptures,  etc. 

Preceding  World  War  I,  Valentiner,  on  a  recommen- 


*  Referred  to  in  the  Museum's  permanent  catalogue 
as  "Esther's  Feast." 


dation  by  Bode,  had  worked  for  a  few  years  at  the 
Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art,  New  York,  as  director 
of  the  section  of  decorative  art.  Valentiner,  after  he  had 
finished  his  studies  with  Thode  by  publishing  "Rem- 
brandt und  seine  Umgebung"  (1905),  had  assisted 
Bode  and  Hofstede  de  Groot  in  Berlin.  "Rembrandt  und 
seine  Umgebung"  acquainted  the  world  with  the 
painter's  family,  from  whom  he  had  found  his  inspira- 
tions. Many  of  his  portraits  came  to  be  identified  as 
representations  of  his  family — Saskia,  Hendrikje,  Titus. 

Before  Valentiner  had  left  Europe,  his  knowledge  of 
decorative  arts  found  its  expression  in  the  publication 
of  the  catalogue  on  Spanish-Moorish  faiences  for  the 
collection  of  Alfred  Beit  (1908),  as  well  as  in  his  essay 
about  Dutch  ceramics.  Once  in  the  U.  S.  A.,  he  did 
not  forget  his  old  love  for  Italian  and  Dutch  paintings 
and  with  this  contributed  greatly  to  the  stature  of 
American  art  collections,  as  well  as  to  the  originating 
of  collections  of  sculpture  there,  in  both  of  which  his 
influence  could  be  strongly  felt.  Before  the  outbreak  of 
World  War  I  his  three-volume  catalogue  was  published 
concerning  the  extensive  Johnson  Collection  at  Phila- 
delphia (the  Italian  volume  in  collaboration  with 
Berenson).  He  later  compiled  catalogues  of  the  Goldman 
(1922)  and  Widener  (1923)  collections. 

At  Detroit  he  constantly  arranged  exhibitions  of 
masterworks  by  great  painters:  Fifty  Paintings  by  Van 
Dyck,  1929;  Rembrandt,  1930;  50  Masterworks  by 
Frans  Hals,  1935;  60  Paintings  by  Rubens,  1936. 
From  these  exhibitions  American  art  collectors  acquired 
some  of  the  masterpieces  for  their  collections  or  began 
with  them  the  founding  of  a  new  collection.  In  1927 
he  was  successful  in  the  acquisition  of  a  rare  and  most 
beautiful  Rembrandt,  the  charming  "Visitation"  of 
1640  (Duke  of  Westminster  Collection).  The  most 
important  exhibition  with  which  he  was  ever  com- 
missioned was  the  New  York  World's  Fair,  1939, 
preceding  World  War  II,  of  which  several  catalogues 
give  proof  and  information. 

Valentiner  was  productive  as  a  writer.  He  wrote 
well  and  was  always  full  of  ideas.  His  manner  of  writing 
was  charming,  and  his  mind  open  to  any  form  of  ex- 
pression. His  spheres  of  interest  were  manifold,  various, 
and  broad,  one  of  them  his  deep  preoccupation  with 
antique  sculpture.  I  do  not  know  of  any  bibliography 
of  his  writings,  in  spite  of  their  containing  quite  a  num- 
ber of  things  of  unusual  interest  and  originality.  He  be- 
came famous  as  author  of  several  volumes  of  Klassiker  der 
Kunst.  As  were  most  of  these  well-known  volumes,  the 
one  about  Rembrandt  was  worked  over  too  much  by 
unqualified  people  from  the  start.  Thanks  to  Valentiner, 
we  now  have  the  third  wholly  revised  edition  of  his 
works,  (1909),  to  which  he  wrote  the  two  additional 
supplements  (rediscovered  masterpieces,  1921  and 
1923).  The  volumes  "Frans  Hals"  and  "Pieter  de 
Hooch"  are  his  also.  The  projected  three-volume  edition 
of  Rembrandt  drawings  which  he  financed  himself, 
consists  of  two  volumes  only  (1925,  1934),  as  the  ma- 
terial for  the  third  volume  was  destroyed.  In  spite  of 
Benesch's  complete  edition  of  Rembrandt's  drawings, 
Valentiner's  two  volumes  are  worth  studying  and  the 
loss  of  Volume  III  is  very  regrettable. 

The  numerous  Rembrandts  scattered  around  the 
U.  S.  A.  Valentiner  treated  in  a  separate  book  (1931). 
He  also  wrote  an  enlightening  work  on  Nicolaes  Maes 
(1924). 

Valentiner's  favorite  was  Italian  sculpture.  Here, 
next  to  Bode,  he  proved  to  be  the  most  successful  inter- 


50 


preter.  Whatever  he  found  was  published  in  periodicals. 
There  are  books  on  Tino  da  Camaino  (1935)  and 
Michelangelo  (1914,  The  Late  Tears  of  Michelangelo), 
which  are  byproducts  of  his  researches.  Especially  in 
his  old  age,  he  was  interested  in  Italian  sculpture.  If 
there  was  anyone  who  deserved  the  distinction  "Bundc- 
sregierung"  after  World  War  II,  it  was  certainly 
Valentiner.  It  was  only  late  in  life  that  he  became  an 
American  citizen,  and  he  always,  even  while  working 
in  America,  helped  make  scholarship  important  in 
Germany.  His  periodicals  Art  in  America  (from  1913) 
and  Art  Quarterly  (from  1938),  both  in  the  best  tradition 
of  Bode,  are,  in  spite  of  limited  funds,  the  work  of  a 
skilled  specialist. 

He  acquired  several  works  of  art  by  contemporary 
German  artists,  editing  books  on  sculptor  Kolbe  (1922) 
and  Schmidt-Rottluff  (1922),  and  he  inspired  colleagues 
such  as  Rathbone  in  Boston  to  collect  expressionistic  art. 
The  big  exhibition  of  German  art  at  the  Museum  of 
Modern  Art  (N.  Y.),  the  books  by  Kuhn  (about  Ex- 
pressionism at  the  Harvard  Collection  in  Cambridge) 
and  by  Zigrosser  (about  graphic  arts  and  Expressionism, 
1957)  may  go  back  directly  to  Valentiner's  influence. 
Shortly  before  his  death,  he  surprised  us  with  a 
Kirchner  Exhibition  at  Raleigh  (January  1958),  an 
astonishingly  rich  collection  of  this  leading  German 
artist  being  found  in  America. 

Valentiner  comes  from  a  family  of  scientists  and  he 
was  always  devoted  to  science,  but  he  was  far  from  being 
a  professional.  This  is  true  of  Valentiner  both  as  a 
scientist  and  as  a  museum  director.  Above  all  he  was 
a  charming,  extremely  kind  human  being,  always 
prepared  to  help  others,  full  of  enthusiasm,  but  governed 
in  his  judgement  of  art  and  people  by  a  universal  and 
objective  knowledge  of  things  and  of  human  character. 
Sometimes  he  was  resented  and  reproached  for  his  too 
generous  and  too  easy-going  ways  of  crediting  works  of 
art  to  famous  artists.  (Zuschreibungen).  He,  of  course, 
was  liable  to  make  mistakes  as  everyone  is,  but  nobody 
was  as  willing  to  retract  his  errors  with  less  ill-will  than 
he.  Of  how  little  importance  are  these  few  mistakes, 
when  compared  to  his  fruitful  contribution  to  scholar- 
ship during  the  work  of  a  lifetime,  over  a  period  of 
fifty  years,  and  which  he  donated  to  the  world  in  an 
effortless,  generous  way!  Even  the  most  important 
scientific  discoveries  he  presented  in  an  offhand  manner, 
superior  to  professional  pride.  He  seems  to  have  written 
quite  a  few  diaries,  which  he  unfortunately  destroyed 
later  on  with  only  a  few  exceptions.  How  much  we  might 
have  learned  from  him,  reading  of  his  encounters  with 
Bodenhausen,  Bode,  Hofstede  de  Groot,  and  all  his 
American  friends — he  made  friends  everywhere  easily 
and  was  loved  and  esteemed  by  everybody.  All  that 
is  left  to  us  now  is,  beside  his  excellent  workmanship, 
the  memory  of  an  extremely  lovable,  decent  personality 
whose  obvious  charm  lay  in  his  unforgettable  naturalness 
and  simplicity,  in  his  noble  and  independent  attitude 
toward  this  world  and  its  affairs.  G.  F. 


NEUGASS  ARTICLE 

When  the  North  Carolina  Museum  of  Art  in  Raleigh 
began  to  make  preparations  for  an  Exhibition  in  honor 
of  its  first  Director,  Wilhelm  R.  Valentiner  (1880-1958), 
it  planned  to  encompass  the  fifty  years'  activity  of  a 
great  German  art  scholar  in  the  service  of  American 
museums.  Due  to  his  death  last  September,  the  Anni- 


versary Exhibition  became  a  Memorial  Exhibition. 

The  problems  of  such  a  show  were  not  easy  to  solve. 
The  trials  of  a  painter's  creativity,  his  influences,  and 
his  continuous  development  can  be  shown  in  an  exhibi- 
tion. Our  museums  developed  an  outstanding  example 
in  presenting  the  exhibition  commemorating  Picasso's 
75th  birthday.  But  how  can  an  exhibition  demonstrate 
the  creative  genius  of  a  scholar  who  was  among  the 
greatest  Museum  Directors  of  our  time,  and  to  whom 
all  America  should  be  thankful  for  his  service  in  an 
unending  enrichment  of  its  art  treasures? 

As  a  pupil  of  Henry  Thode  and  Carl  Neumann  in 
Heidelberg,  Valentiner  was  trained  in  the  scientific 
techniques  of  the  new  art  history,  which  began  to  use 
new  methods  to  explore  the  arts  at  the  turn  of  the  cen- 
tury. After  he  wrote  his  Dissertation  on  "Rembrandt 
and  his  Environment"  in  1904,  Hofstede  de  Groot  took 
Valentiner  to  Holland  to  assist  him  in  preparation  of  the 
German  edition  of  Rembrandt's  Drawings  (1905)  as 
well  as  a  work  on  the  Dutch  Masters  of  the  17th  century 
(1906).  Then  he  went  to  Berlin  as  Assistant  to  Wilhelm 
von  Bode  at  the  Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum.  There  he 
acquired  his  first  knowledge  of  museum  techniques  as 
Curator  of  Decorative  Arts.  Bode  recommended  him  to 
J.  P.  Morgan,  then  President  of  the  Metropolitan 
Museum  of  Art,  in  New  York.  His  American  museum 
career  began  in  1908.  Because  of  his  knowledge  of  the 
art  of  the  Netherlands,  he  became  in  America  a  counter- 
part to  Bernard  Berenson,  who  specialized  in  the  art 
of  the  Italian  Renaissance.  He  inspired  the  love  of 
Americans  for  the  art  of  the  north,  especially  Holland 
and  Flanders.  He  wrote  the  first  accurate  monograph 
on  Rembrandt  for  Klassiker  der  Kunst  in  1908,  and  fol- 
lowed it  with  a  volume  on  Frans  Hals  in  1921.  He  was 
sent  to  Europe  on  a  buying  trip  for  the  Metropolitan 
Museum  in  1914,  and  while  in  Germany  he  was  caught 
by  surprise  by  the  war.  He  volunteered  for  the  German 
Army.  His  Sergeant  was  the  painter  Franz  Marc. 
Valentiner  was  enthusiastic  about  the  young  German 
art.  He  stood  up  for  the  new  generation  of  painters, 
gathered  their  works  and  wrote  many  monographs  and 
newspaper  articles  about  them. 

His  suspension  by  the  Metropolitan  Museum  because 
of  hostility  towards  all  things  German  delayed  his 
return  after  the  war.  When  a  history  of  the  Museum 
appeared  in  print,  not  one  word  of  his  activity  in  building 
it  up  was  mentioned. 

While  he  was  still  in  Germany,  he  was  asked  to 
become  advisor  to  the  Detroit  Institute  of  Art.  For  this 
museum  he  bought  the  first  paintings  of  Matisse,  Van 
Gogh,  Degas,  Monet,  etc.  His  taste  is  largely  responsible 
for  the  art  education  in  American  museums.  He  pre- 
pared the  first  show  of  German  Expressionists  in  America 
in  1923,  and  made  the  first  friends  for  the  new  German 
art.  From  1924  to  1944  he  held  the  position  of  Director 
of  the  Museum  in  Detroit  and  made  it  into  one  of  the 
most  advanced  museums  in  the  country.  Prominent 
American  collectors  had  their  collections  catalogued  by 
him.  Paintings  earlier  attributed  to  great  artists  were 
often  correctly  identified,  much  to  the  disappointment 
of  their  owners.  Valentiner's  judgement  was  acknowl- 
edged as  final.  Many  collectors  wanted  his  advice,  and 
they  often  bought  works  of  art  that  were  later  given  to 
museums.  In  that  way  W.  R.  Valentiner  contributed 
substantially  to  the  enrichment  of  American  art  col- 
lections. He  arranged  large  exhibitions  that  furthered 
the  knowledge  and  understanding  of  art.  Rembrandt, 
Frans  Hals,  Dutch  genre  and  landscape  painting,  Van 


51 


Dyck,  Rubens,  Italian  Gothic  and  Renaissance  sculp- 
ture, Leonardo  da  Vinci,  Rembrandt  and  his  Pupils, 
are  only  a  few  themes  that  he  handled  in  the  course  of 
his  museum  career. 

In  1926  he  bought  the  first  works  of  pre-Columbian 
and  African  art  for  an  American  museum. 

At  the  age  of  66  he  went  to  the  Los  Angeles  County 
Museum.  He  published  The  Art  Quarterly,  an  art  maga- 
zine, at  the  same  time.  In  1951  he  began  to  gather 
works  of  art  for  the  newly  founded  museum  in  Raleigh, 
North  Carolina.  He  became  Director  of  Paul  Getty's 
Museum  in  Santa  Monica,  California,  in  1954.  Mr. 
Getty  is  the  richest  oil  magnate  in  the  world.  Later, 
at  the  age  of  75,  he  took  over  as  the  Director  of  the 
North  Carolina  Museum  of  Art.  Because  of  the  many 
new  acquisitions  and  the  exhibitions  he  arranged  for 
several  museums,  he  wrote  over  600  scientific  contribu- 
tions that  appeared  in  museum  publications,  books, 
and  newspapers.  In  1957  he  received  the  Service  Cross, 
1st  Class,  from  President  Heuss.  In  1958  he  revised  his 
book  of  Rembrandt  for  a  new  edition  of  the  Klassiker 
der  Kunst.  Shortly  thereafter  he  died  in  New  York  of  a 
lung  infection. 

So  ended  a  successful  and  industrious  life  to  which  the 
Memorial  Exhibition  in  Raleigh  payed  a  worthy  tribute. 
In  order  to  show  his  activity  pictorially  a  gigantic 
exhibition  was  gathered.  It  was  composed  of  works 
loaned  by  all  the  museums  which  Valentiner  enriched 
through  his  purchases,  of  works  belonging  to  private 
collectors  who  sought  his  advice,  and  which  will  even- 
tually go  to  American  museums,  and  of  his  own  col- 
lection of  ancient  and  modern  art.  The  exhibition 
demonstrates  again  and  again  his  infallible  taste  and  his 
feeling  for  highest  quality.  The  works  of  many  masters 
were  included,  from  wonderful  Rembrandt  sketches, 
Persian  miniatures,  sculptures  by  Marcks,  Kolbe,  and 
Lehmbruck  to  paintings  by  Nolde,  Rolfs,  Heckel  and 
Schmidt-Rottluff.  Nine  portraits  of  W.  R.  Valentiner 
bear  witness  to  a  certain  vanity  which  he  could  never 
quite  subdue. 

Because  of  this  exhibition,  the  Museum  in  Raleigh 
will  acquire  many  gifts  of  art  to  honor  its  late  director, 
substantially  enlarging  the  core  of  this  young  collection. 

A  large,  350-page,  comprehensive  catalogue  of  the 
exhibition,  in  quarto,  contains  about  200  illustrations 
and  color  plates  as  well  as  a  part  of  Valentiner's  auto- 
biography which  deals  with  his  development  and  ac- 
tivities between  1890  and  1920.  Also  included  is  an 


unpublished  speech  about  Rembrandt  and  Frans  Hals 
and  a  detailed  bibliography  of  all  of  his  writings,  as  well 
as  an  appreciation  of  his  work  written  by  the  present 
Director  of  the  Museum,  James  B.  Byrnes. 

K.  S. 


VENTURI  ARTICLE 

Among  the  art  historians  of  my  generation,  W.  R. 
Valentiner  will  always  be  remembered — a  celebrated 
authority,  and  indefatigable  researcher,  above  all  in 
the  fields  of  seventeenth  century  Dutch  painting  and 
Italian  sculpture  of  the  thirteenth  to  the  sixteenth 
centuries. 

Born  in  Karlsruhe  on  the  second  of  May  1880,  and 
died  in  New  York  on  the  sixth  of  September  1958. 
After  studying  at  the  University  of  Heidelberg,  he 
became  the  assistant  of  Hofstede  de  Groot  and  Bode. 
In  1908,  he  left  Germany  for  New  York  to  become 
Curator  of  Decorative  Arts  at  the  Metropolitan  Museum. 
Finding  himself  in  Germany  in  1914,  participated  in 
the  war,  and  returned  to  the  United  States  in  1921. 
Consultant  and  then  Director  of  the  Detroit  Institute 
of  Arts  until  1944,  creator  of  not  only  major  American 
museums,  but  also  a  number  of  famous  collections 
such  as  the  Ford,  the  Fisher,  etc.  Upon  leaving  Detroit, 
was  enlisted  as  Consultant  at  the  Los  Angeles  County 
Museum  from  1946  to  1954  and  then  was  Director  of 
the  North  Carolina  Musuem  from  1955  until  his  death. 

It  can  be  said  that  wherever  Valentiner  paused  a 
new  museum  was  born.  Innumerable  were  the  exhibi- 
tions which  he  organized,  among  which  was  the  1939 
large  show  of  masterpieces  at  the  New  York  World 
Fair.  Also  numerous  were  his  books  on  Rembrandt, 
Pieter  de  Hooch,  Frans  Hals,  etc.  Research  on  Italian 
sculpture  was  perhaps  Valentiner's  major  endeavor  in 
his  last  years,  and  Commentari  remembers  with  gratitude 
his  "Simone  Talenti,  Sculptor,"  published  in  1957.  A 
man  of  great  goodness,  of  vast  cultural  background, 
quick  to  understand  modern  art  (and  in  sculpture, 
published  also  many  notable  theories — Origins  of  Modern 
Sculpture — in  1946).  A  born  researcher,  ingenuous  and 
matured  in  knowledge,  Valentiner  was  one  of  the  most 
honored  personalities  in  the  field  of  art  history  in  the 
last  fifty  years.  Staff 


European  Contributors: 

Colin  Agnew,  Managing  Director,  Thomas  Agnew  &  Sons,  Ltd.,  London;  Hans  Hess,  Curator,  City  of  York  Art  Gallery,  York; 
Kduard  Plietzsch,  art  dealer,  Cologne;  Friedrich  Winkler,  Director,  Kupferstich-Kabinett,  Staatliche  Museum,  Berlin;  Fritz  W . 
Neugass,  German  scholar  and  writer  now  residing  in  Mew  York  City;  Lionello  Venturi,  Co-Director,  COMMENTARI,  Rome. 


The  Museum  is  grateful  to  Mrs.  Gertrude  Fleischmann  and 
Mrs.  George  M.  Stevens,  Jr.,  for  translations  from  the  German. 


North  Carolina  State  Library 
galeigh 


52 


THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  MUSEUM  OF  ART 


Officers  and  Board  of  Directors  of  the  State  Art  Society 

Governor  Luther  H.  Hodges  Honorary  President 

Mr.  Robert  Lee  Humber  President 

Mr.  Edwin  Gill  Vice-President 

William  Oliver  Smith1  Treasurer 

Ex  Officio 

Hon.  Luther  H.  Hodges  Governor  oj  North  Carolina 

Dr.  Charles  M.  Carroll  State  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction 

Hon.  Malcolm  B.  Seawell  Attorney  General 

Mrs.  J.  H.  B.  Moore  Art  Chairman,  North  Carolina  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs 

Elected 

Mrs.  T.  Melville  Brousrhton  A  r, 

J  &  Appointed  by  the  Governor 

Mr.  Egbert  L.  Davis,  Jr. 

Mrs.  J.  H.  B.  Moore  Mr.  Robert  Lee  Humber 

Mr.  Edwin  Gill  Mrs  Charles  Cannon 
Mrs.  George  W.  Paschal,  Jr. 

Mr.  Watts  Hill,  Jr.  Mr-  RalPh  C-  Price 

Mrs.  O.  Max  Gardner  Mr.  George  M.  Ivey 

Staff  of  the  Museum 

James  B.  Byrnes  Acting  Director 

Ben  F.  Williams  Curator 

Charles  W.  Stanford,  Jr  Curator  of  Education 

Peggy  Jo  Kirby  Registrar 

William  T.  Beckwith  Budget  Officer 

Margaret  P.  Ehringhaus2  Public  Information 

William  A.  Martin  Photographer 

Candy  Russell3  Secretary  to  Director 

Christie  McLeod  Secretary 

William  A.  Weathersby    Library  Assistant 

Edith  Johnson  Sales  Desk 

Frank  L.  Manly  Preparator 

Branton  L.  Olive  Packer  and  Shipper 

James  R.  Hampton  Head  Museum  Guard 

Information 

Hours:  Open  Tuesdays  through  Saturdays  10-5;  Sundays  2-6;  Closed  Mondays  and 
legal  holidays. 

Telephone:    TE  4-3611,  Ext.  7568,  7569. 

Tours:    May  be  scheduled  upon  advance  telephone  or  written  request. 

Membership  in  the  North  Carolina  State  Art  Society:     Annual  $5.00;  Contributor 

$10.00;  Sustaining  $25.00;  Patron  $50.00;  Life  $100.00;  Donor  $500.00;  Benefactor 

$1,000.00. 

1  Deceased. 

2  Resigned  November,  1959;  position  now  occupied  by  Margaret  T.  Burns. 

3  Resigned  November,  1959;  position  now  ocupied  by  Louise  W.  Parker. 


The  North  Carolina  Museum  of  Art 

RALEIGH,  NORTH  CAROLINA 


NON-PROFIT  ORG. 
U.  S.  POSTAGE 

PAI  D 

RALEIGH,  N.  C. 
Permit  No.  453